Rafflesia Traders: Semarang, Central Java

By Barrie | November 1st, 2007 | No Comments

Sutrisno waits for customers for his plants in the Sigar Bencah area of the Central Java capital Semarang. He and other residents claim the flowers are rare Rafflesia parasitic flowering plants, known as walur among the villagers and as bunga bangkai (corpse flower) for their foul odor. “I heard that these flowers can be sold so I search for them,” said Sutrisno, a farmer, who was selling five plants on the side of the road for Rp 25,000 each. Two high school students, Heri and Mahrus, said they spent their free time looking for the flowers in the hills around Sigar Bancah.

“We dig them up and take them to the roadside to sell. It turns out many people want them,” they said.

While the plants being sold do look like the Rafflesia and smell like them, they seem smaller in size.

“We sell them for Rp 50,000 (US$5.50) each,” said another resident, Kasmiran, who was selling 15 flowers in the area of Bulusan, near Diponegoro University.

Another vendor, Riyan, said he took part in a recent flower exhibition and sold his plants for Rp 120,000 each.

The Rafflesia parasitic flowering plant is one of the botanical world’s greatest wonders, for its beauty as well as unique lifespan and large diameter.

The flowering plant was named after British governor-general Sir Stamford Raffles, who discovered the Arnoldi-type flower in Bengkulu in 1818, although he was not the discoverer of the Rafflesia family of plants.

The Rafflesia belongs to a rare species of flowers. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 1978 categorized the Rafflesia as “vulnerable, endangered and interminate”.

Suherdjoko