Rafflesia arnoldii is one of the three national flowers in Indonesia, the other two being the white jasmine (Jasminum sambac) and moon orchid (Phalaenopsis amabilis).

He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific, detained by the Dutch for three years on the Indonesian island of Java, where, in 1797, he collected a specimen, which was probably what is now known as R. patma.

Brown eventually gave a speech before the June 1820 meeting of the Linnean Society of London, where he first introduced the genus and its until then two species.

[11] William Jack, Arnold's successor in the Sumatran Bencoolen colony, recollected the plant and was the first to officially describe the new species under the name R. titan in 1820.

It is thought quite likely that Jack rushed the name to publication because he feared that the French might publish what they knew of the species, and thus rob the British of potential 'glory'.

This was pointed out by the Dutch Rafflesia expert Willem Meijer in his monographic addition to the book series Flora Malesiana in 1997.

[10] In 1999, the British botanical historian David Mabberley, in response to Meijer's findings, attempted to rescue Brown's names from synonymy.

Mabberley thus proposed that this document be considered the official effective publication, stating this would invalidate Jack's earlier name.

[1] Mabberley also pointed out that the genus Rafflesia was thus first validated by an anonymous report on the meeting published in the Annals of Philosophy in September 1820 (the name was technically an unpublished nomen nudum until this publication).

[1] An old Kew webpage claimed that Sophia Hull was present when the specimen was collected and finished the color drawing that Arnold had started of the plant.

Similar to fungi, individuals grow as a mass of thread-like strands of tissue completely embedded within and in intimate contact with surrounding host cells from which nutrients and water are obtained.

[citation needed] It can only be seen outside the host plant when it is ready to reproduce; the only part of Rafflesia that is identifiable as distinctly plant-like are the flowers, though even these are unusual since they attain massive proportions, have a reddish-brown colouration, and stink of rotting flesh.

[14] Called a "monster flower", Rafflesia arnoldii produces the largest single bloom and can grow up to three feet (one meter) in diameter and weigh up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg).

When it is young, at least at the locations studied in West Sumatra, areas of primary forest, the vine climbs on sapling trees and bushes of Laportea stimulans and Coffea canephora in the undergrowth, in the subcanopy a Campnosperma species is the most important, whereas the only large tree the vine grows in is also Laportea stimulans.

The most common plant associated with Rafflesia arnoldii is the smallish tree Coffea canephora (the well-known robusta coffee), which is actually not native to the area, but was introduced from Africa.

[21] When Rafflesia is ready to reproduce, a tiny bud forms outside the root or stem of its host and develops over a period of a year.

[14] It has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List, but the conservation status of the Rafflesia arnoldii is currently of concern due to anthropogenic and biological factors.