Plants are vastly intelligent in ways many people may not understand or appreciate. They have to be, since most of them move very little (if at all), so they require complex chemistry to communicate and protect themselves, often adorning themselves in bizarre garments. Some plants actually mimic animals, such as the South African beetle daisy, for example, which evolved petals that imitate dark flies resting on their flowers, thereby fooling bugs into "mating" with them.
Many plants smell "good" — to humans that is — but some go several steps in the other direction, presenting themselves to the world as dead, decaying animal flesh. Instead of bright, attractive flowers that bring the bees, they have dark, reddish blooms that stink. Like, really bad. This class of “carrion flowers” includes many species, but few are as charismatic as Rafflesia arnoldii, also known as the “stinking corpse lily,” which also holds the record as the world’s largest flower. True to its name, it reeks of festering flesh, roughly the size and appearance of an exploded tire made of weathered beef jerky. It’s also a parasite — because who needs to be free-living when you’re this fabulous?
