A new species of the genus Rafflesia, Rafflesia sharifah-hapsahiae, is described, with illustrations. A key to 2 related species of Rafflesia of Peninsular Malaysia is also provided. A discussion on its differences and similarities with Rafflesia azlanii and Rafflesia hasseltii is presented. | Turkish Journal of Botany Research Article Turk J Bot (2013) 37: 1038-1044 © TÜBİTAK doi: Rafflesia sharifah-hapsahiae (Rafflesiaceae), a new species from Peninsular Malaysia 1,2, 3 1 Jumaat HAJI ADAM *, Rahmah MOHAMED , Mohd Afiq Aizat JUHARI , 1 3 Nik Nadira Farhana NIK ARIFF , Kiew-Lian WAN 1 School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Fraser’s Hill Research Centre, National University of Malaysia, Malaysia 3 School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: A new species of the genus Rafflesia, Rafflesia sharifah-hapsahiae, is described, with illustrations. A key to 2 related species of Rafflesia of Peninsular Malaysia is also provided. A discussion on its differences and similarities with Rafflesia azlanii and Rafflesia hasseltii is presented. Key words: Malaysia, tropical rainforest, Rafflesia, parasite 1. Introduction Rafflesia is a holoparasitic flowering plant of the tropical rainforests of South-east Asia. It is exclusively dependent on the host vine plant for its protection, nutrition, and survival. The vegetative parts of Rafflesia are reduced to thread-like structures, and huge flowers are produced externally on the root and stem surfaces of the host plant, with a diameter of up to 150 cm in Rafflesia arnoldii (Nais, 2001). The biggest flower ever recorded for Peninsular Malaysia was 95 cm in Rafflesia su-meiae , Nais & (Wong et al., 2009). Not all flowers of Rafflesia are gigantic in size, and 5 of the known Rafflesia species measure between 15 and 20 cm in diameter (Nais, 2001). Rafflesia has many vernacular names, including bunga pakma, bunga pecah belah, bunga kobis, bunga .
