"The world’s most whopping weird plant": Rafflesia banaoana

Thorogood, 38, last month became the first westerner to see the Rafflesia banaoana – an otherworldly-looking red spotted species that spans half a metre across – in an experience that reduced him to tears.

The two-week expedition was the culmination of years of planning, but its genesis goes back to Thorogood’s childhood bedroom in Chelmsford, Essex. From the age of eight, he would marvel at photographs of alien species of rare flowers in the remotest corners of the planet.

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