Spring is in full swing! And while most of us are familiar with tulips and daffodils, much more fantastical flora is hidden away in lush rainforests, bogs, and even deep underground.
Have you ever met a 10-foot-tall flower that smelled like a corpse? Or one that resembled big, juicy red cartoon lips?
Here are six flowering plants that would give the Little Shop of Horrors ’ Audrey II a run for her money.
1. Corpse Flower ( Amorphophallus titanium )
Native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Indonesia, the Corpse Flower is a towering single-leafed plant with a flower that smells like rotting flesh.
The foul-smelling odor and red and purple hues mimic the characteristics of a decaying corpse, which the plant uses to attract flies and beetles, its primary pollinators.
2. Hot Lips ( Palicourea elata )
Pucker up! Palicourea elata , commonly known as the Hot Lips plant, is a tropical plant that grows throughout Central and South America. While this plant looks like your run-of-the-mill shrub for most of the year, it grows a modified set of leaves that resemble thick red lips right before it blooms from December to March.
While they might seem silly to us, the Hot Lips plant uses its plump pout to attract pollinators like hummingbirds and butterflies.
3. Black Bat Flower ( Tacca chantrieri )
While the dark and mysterious might not be everyone’s aesthetic, Halloween lovers are guaranteed to adore the Black Bat Flower. Also called Cat’s Whiskers or the Devil Flower, this peculiar plant hails from Southeast Asia. The glossy black flowers, resembling bat wings, are held aloft by slim green stems.
Dozens of long, green whiskers, or bracteoles, drip from the flowers. Scientists have yet to determine the purpose of the Black Bat Flower’s drooping bracteoles, though some speculate they have photosynthetic properties.
4. Naked Man Orchid ( Orchis italica )
Orchids, synonymous with vibrant colors and intricate petals, are popular wedding and anniversary gifts. However, most people would not be thrilled to receive an arrangement of Naked Man Orchids. The long, lobed lips of each flower resemble a tiny naked dude. And with numerous flowers blooming at a time, you’d think you were at a miniature nudist colony.
In Italy, some believe that eating the Naked Man Orchid promotes virility.
5. White Egret Orchid ( Pecteilis radiata )
Another odd orchid on our list is the White Egret Orchid. Found throughout China, Japan, Korea, and Russia, this plant has fragile, fringed flowers that resemble the fanned wings of a white egret.
6. Jackal Food ( Hydnora africana )
The last flower on our list is truly the stuff of nightmares. Native to Southern Africa, the Jackal Food plant is among the top primitive flowering plants. It grows mainly underground and cannibalistically feeds on the roots of neighboring plants.
The only visible part of the Jackal Food is its large, fleshy flower, which looks like the mouth of the man-eating worms in Tremors .
From the stench of rotting flesh to petals that promote masculinity, these six flowers show that the natural world is often stranger than fiction.
Think Nature’s Weird? You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet.
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