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 Carrion Flowers

Carrion Flowers

A Short Reader

Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.33

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    somewhat, corpse, naturally, flesh, whiff, odor, flying, single, rainforests, ever, certain, cluster, world, pounds, type, along
     content words:    Malay Archipelago, South Africa

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Carrion Flowers
By Sheri Skelton 		  
1     Have you ever smelled a really stinky flower? Carrion flowers smell like rotting meat. You wouldn't want to take a whiff of their scent. Their smell makes people want to stay away from them.
 
2     Flowers of Rafflesia plants are one kind of carrion flower. The stinking corpse lily is one type of Rafflesia plant. This lily is the largest single flower in the world. One flower may be three feet wide and weigh fifteen pounds. The stinking corpse lily has no stem or leaves. It lives on vines in rainforests in Indonesia and the Malay Archipelago.
 
3     Another kind of carrion flower is the Titan arum. It is also known as the corpse flower. It grows naturally only in the tropical forests of Sumatra. This smelly flower has the world's largest flower head. The flower head is made up of a cluster of small flowers. Another name for this cluster is a spadix. The spadix is surrounded by a leaf, or spathe, that looks like a petal. The spathe is green on the outside and deep red on the inside. The deep red color of the spathe along with the terrible smell makes this carrion flower seem like a piece of rotting meat.

Paragraphs 4 to 5:
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