Rafflesia

Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It contains approximately 28 species (including four incompletely characterized species as recognized by Willem Meijer in 1997), all found in southeastern Asia, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Rafflesia was found in the Indonesian rain forest by an Indonesian guide working for Dr. Joseph Arnold in 1818, and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the leader of the expedition. It was discovered even earlier by Louis Deschamps in Java between 1791 and 1794, but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861.

The plant has no stems, leaves or true roots. It is a holoparasite of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside the tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the five-petaled flower. In some species, such as Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 100 centimetres (39 in) in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 lb). Even the smallest species, R. baletei, has 12 cm diameter flowers. The flowers look and smell like rotting flesh, hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower" (see below). The foul odor attracts insects such as flies, which transport pollen from male to female flowers. Most species have separate male and female flowers, but a few have hermaphroditic flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal. However, tree shrews and other forest mammals eat the fruits and disperse the seeds. Rafflesia is the official state flower of Indonesia, the Sabah state in Malaysia, and of the Surat Thani Province, Thailand.

Rafflesia (band)

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Raffelesia is a metalcore band from Zeebrugge, Belgium who have been active since 2005 and play in the H8000 scene. The band mostly plays metalcore, melodic death metal and hardcore.

History

In 2005, Bart Teetaert, Lazer Zec, Maxime Aneca, Nick Dapper and Jeremy de Schrijver formed the band. A few months later they performed at their first concert and quickly racked up a number of fans. Genet Records noticed this and signed them a record deal.

In May 2006, Raffelesia released their self-titled mini-cd containing 5 songs. Short after the mini-cd got released, Maxime Aneca got replaced by Christian Charles Borny (a.k.a. CCB). This change in the line-up caused more melody in their songs. In February 2007 Raffelesia travelled to Germany to record their first full cd named The Rape of Harmonies Studio with Ralf Müller and Alexander Dietz; respectively producer and guitar player from Heaven Shall Burn.

In May 2007 they released their album named Embrace the final day. The band subsequently played with such bands as Heaven Shall Burn, Maroon, Caliban, Sepultura, Aborted, Cro-Mags, Bleeding Through and Parkway Drive. During their tour the bassist Jeremy de Schrijver split from the band. He got temporarily replaced by Koen de Croo from Suburbia in Ruins, but he was soon replaced permantly by Nick Vyvey, who featured before in Omerta.