The legend of the false maiden:
A mighty king of the desert with a fabulous garden who had many wives often wandered by himself through his garden and tended it wondering why his wives couldn't be as beautiful as his precious flowers. One day he found a wild orchid growing in a flower bed and spoke aloud as he thought to himself "how wonderful it would be to have a wife as pure and beautiful as this wild orchid", and rather than digging the weed out, left it there as he admired its beauty. That night the desert wind decided to bless the king for his kindness to the weed and turned her into a beautiful princess with a dress made of petals. On finding the girl in the morning, the king was so taken aback by her beauty that he married her that day and paraded her all around town for everyone to see. The king's new wife was so dazzlingly beautiful and pure of heart that she was loved by many. However the king cared little for his wives, forcing them to do the housework in his palace, and soon her dress became old and worn and her face dirty. Appalled by how ugly his wife had become, he refused to feed her until she looked pretty again, but even after cleaning herself up, her face had become old from all the work she had done for the king and so she hid her face again with dirt so the king wouldn't see how old she looked. Unable to make herself as pretty as the king wanted, she began to starve as the king grew fat and got a new prettier wife. Forced to eat the rats that wandered the palace, rumors soon spread of her disgusting behavior. The king caught her in the act and threw her out. That night as the king slept in his bed, the orchid princess sneaked into the palace and ate the king in one bite. This broke the spell the orchid princess was under however and she returned to the flower bed and turned back into a flower. However because of her voracious appetite she was turned into a pitcher plant instead of an orchid and could gorge on flies forever after.
There are several other accounts of this story which vary in details and it's the origins of the Beauty And The Beast fable. Although the original has been pushed aside in favor of the Germanic version of the tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and its modern adaptations such as the Disney version of the story.
In some versions of the story the orchid princess goes on to have several children by the king before being mistreated by him. These pitcher plant princesses then go on to have more successful lives and spawn a mighty empire of their own. In some stories, rogue princesses devour the children of the other wives and the pitcher plant princesses are cast out all together forcing them to live in the forest where wandering princes fall in love with them with mixed results independent of the princesses intentions. It's likely that the story is some kind of explanation as to the appearance of the titan arum as it resembles an upside down dress with legs dressed in baggy fabric. we do know that some of the jungle gardens of the sultans had the same or very similar looking plants in them at one point, though that is down to trading long distances with no expense spared and having gardens that are well cared for by staff. In some versions she's so appalled by her lost beauty she also buries her head in the dirt so this explanation sounds plausible.
