Penang International Floral Festival 2007
Date : 28th May to 4th June 2006
Time : 9 am to 9.30 pm
Venue : Penang Botanic Gardens, Malaysia
I made a quick dash into the restricted areas to steal a shot. Seems that the City Council has made a bigger fest this year compared to last year. It is only open on 28th May, Sunday.
This is the silk lantern made in the shape of the Rafflesia. Hope I get to see the real flower one day.
Description (copied from WWF Malaysia)
* The world’s largest flower weighing about 9 kg and almost 1 meter wide
* Totally dependent on one particular vine called Tetrastigma (related to the grapevine)
* The Rafflesia is a disembodied flower. A rootless, leafless and stemless parasite, it drains nourishment and gains physical support from its host vine. Its only body outside the flower consists of strands of fungus-like tissue that grow inside the Tetrastigma vine. It first manifests itself as a tiny bud on the vine’s stem.
* Over a period of 12 months, it swells to a cabbage-like head that bursts around midnight under the cover of a rainy night to reveal this startling, lurid-red flower. Beauty turns beastly in only a few days. The Rafflesia only flowers for 5 to 6 days, before the petals blacken and the flower withers. The “flowering beast” begins to smell like rotting meat, attracting blue bottle flies for pollination.
Cute little bees which will be lighted up at night. The school holidays is here and Malaysia is on sale again. So come to Penang!