‘I’m the luckiest guy alive’: Man breaks down in tears after 13-year search finally ends in a remote rainforest

A 13-year search for one of the world’s rarest flowers has finally come to an end, and the emotional moment was caught on video. The clip shows an Indonesian flower hunter crying tears of joy after finding the super-rare plant. Septian “Deki” Andrikithat has spent more than ten years trying to find this extremely rare flower. 

He finally found the Rafflesia hasseltii in Sumatra, Indonesia. This was a huge achievement, especially since Andrikithat said he’d been searching for this exact plant for “13 years.” Dr. Chris Thorogood, an Associate Professor of Biology at Oxford University, went on the trip and filmed the amazing moment. Thorogood told The NY Post that the journey was difficult and the flower was so rare that the team got “quite emotional about it.” 

The video shows Andrikithat on his knees, crying with happiness over the discovery as Thorogood comforts him. Later, thinking about the one-in-a-million find, Andrikithat said, “This is very amazing.” Thorogood was just as excited, saying, “I’m the luckiest guy alive.”

This flower is rarer than you can imagine

This flower isn’t something you can just find in a regular park. The Rafflesia hasseltii is so rare that Oxford University said it has been “seen more by tigers than people.” To find it, Thorogood and his team had to walk “day and night through tiger-patrolled Sumatran rainforests.”

What makes this flower so special, apart from being incredibly rare? It’s the way it grows and blooms. The Rafflesia type is completely parasitic, which means it spends its whole life hidden inside a kind of tropical vine and only comes above ground when it’s ready to bloom.

This huge white-spotted flower, which looks like something from Little Shop of Horrors, doesn’t stay above ground for long. “It takes up to 9 months for the bud to develop, and it only opens for a few days,” said Thorogood. “This one opened in front of our very eyes.” The flower’s appearance is so unique that it seems almost otherworldly, as if it came from another dimension.

These rare giant flowers also have a truly disgusting trick: they give off a smell like rotting meat, which earned them the nickname “corpse flower.” That smell is actually important for their survival. The botanical garden says that the stench brings in flies, which are “duped by the false promise of a carcass to lay their eggs on, inadvertently cross-pollinate the flowers.”

While Rafflesia hasseltii is huge, its relative, Rafflesia arnoldii, holds the record as the biggest flower in the world, measuring an amazing three feet across!

Sadly almost all Rafflesia types are endangered because their homes are being destroyed, meaning they may face extinction as we can’t easily cultivate them. Scientists are working hard on conservation efforts, and there has been some good news about climate recently that could help protect endangered species.

Oxford said that “Urgent action is needed to protect these remarkable flowers” and is planning to “create the first ever Rafflesia conservation working group: sharing knowledge, tools and best practice.” Working together across countries is definitely needed to save these weird and wonderful plants and their homes.