World’s largest flower blooms in Antique

SIBALOM, Antique – Without any leaves or stem and considered as a parasite, this kind of flower clings to the vines of trees around this town’s National Park. The flower is considered by scientists as the world’s biggest flower.

Locally known as "Uruy," classified as an endangered and maybe extinct in other parts of the world is the biggest flower in the world is scientifically known as Rafflesia sp. It is said to have been blooming since 2000 according to the Antique Outdoor, a mountaineering group and HARIBON Foundation, an NGO who conducts scientific and socio-economic research in the country. The flower is 22 inches in diameter, its petals are like pizza dough. It stands about a foot high.

However, according to this town’s Mayor Erick Lotilla, the plant has been long existing before the two groups have found this rare flower with no stem and leaves.

"This flower was scientifically discovered after the 5,511 hectare mountains of this town was declared National Park under Presidential Proclamation No. 282. Mountaineering groups were asking for the best site they would see in this national park. It was later discovered that this rare flower was found blooming in town barangays Parayan and Cabladan," he told The STAR. He said there are four sites in Barangay Parayan where the flower can be found and two other sites in Barangay Cabladan.

Jonathan de Gracia, a member of the Prevented Area Management Board (PAMB) of Sibalom Natural Park said based on the letter of Dr. Julie Barcelona of the National Museum, that the Rafflesia is definitely not the Rafflesia Manillana found in Makiling and Isarog in Mindanao which was classified by the IUCN Red Data Book to be highly endangered. She said, there is another species, Rafflesia schadenbergiana, first collected in Davao City in 1982 but has never been found again since then.

Lotilla said that the only data they have right now about the Rafflesia in Sibalom is that the flower is "definitely" a new record for Panay Island.

Scientists are now trying to find out if the species is a new record in the country which is different from Borneo, Sumatra and other adjacent islands.