Tropical pitcher plants, also called Monkey Cups by those familiar with the species, can be found in many places throughout the world from Madagascar to Australia, but they’re most common in the jungles of Indonesia. These fanciful flowers look like you can walk up and take a drink right from them, but that’s the last thing you’ll want to do. In fact, the Tropical Pitcher Plants are carnivorous climbers, luring in unsuspecting insects with sweet nectar that are then trapped in the goblet-like cup and unable to escape. Tropical Pitcher Plants have been surprising people since the 1800s, but not many realise that the Pitcher Plant isn’t a flower at all—the pitchers are modified leaves!
One of nature’s true exquisite beauties is the Flame Lily or Glory Lily as it is known in Hindi. This perennial plant is both a climber and scrambler and adds intrigue wherever it grows. The Flame Lily thrives in many parts of the world and is widely propagated as a prized ornamental addition to flower gardens. Like nearly all lilies, the Flame Lily is considered poisonous to humans and animals (especially cats!), so if you insist on growing it make sure to take proper precautions. A fun fact about the Flame Lily is that it’s actually considered a weed that thrives naturally in sandy coastal conditions. That’s one weed we wouldn’t mind having in our backyard.
The Birds of Paradise flower is one of the most popular and widely-recognized tropical flower in the world. It’s aptly named for its resemblance to a Bird of Paradise taking flight. The Bird of Paradise can be cultivated outdoors in tropical, warm climates, as well as indoors for those residing in colder temperatures. Despite its intricate beauty, the Bird of Paradise flower is actually quite easy to grow and care for, requiring little maintenance other than light, warmth, and water when needed. No tropical bouquet of flowers can be considered complete without this highly-recognized tropical staple. Here’s a fun fact about the Bird of Paradise you may not know: it’s actually related to the banana!
When we said, we’d be showing you 40 of the world’s weirdest flowers we weren’t at all kidding. The Beehive Ginger could very well be considered one of the top 5 weirdest flowers in the world. Beehive Gingers may look like they belong to the pine cone family but they are actually related to the ginger plant. Their little “cups” or “honeycombs” (actually called bracts) will collect water and give off the fragrance of ginger. These flowers can be cultivated indoors but require lots of room and a large pot— some growing to the height of 6 feet. The flowers are tiny and white, sometimes resembling little honeybees, and they appear between the brachts. The bracts themselves turn from lovely yellow and golden colours to red. Beehive Ginger as a cut flower is highly prized because the bracts and flowers last for a very long time after being cut.
The beautiful Snake Gourd flower may look like it belongs on a festively wrapped present, but it’s actually a vegetable! The Snake Gourd originated as a wild vegetable that grew in India, but these days it is cultivated around the world. It’s a member of the pumpkin family (like all gourds) and shares similarities with the bitter melon plant, as the long vegetables, it produces taste quite sour and bitter. Despite its terrible taste, the fruit from the Snake Gourd flower is used in a variety of different medical applications, and the reddish fruit inside an overly-ripe gourd can also be used as a tomato substitute when cooking. It may be named the Snake Gourd, but we think it looks more like a spider.
Despite its strange appearance—or perhaps because of— the Spider Chrysanthemum is a favourite flower of florists and gardeners alike. Like all other mums, the Spider Chrysanthemum is well-suited for patio or container gardening. To keep your Spider Mums blooming for as long as you can, be sure to remove faded blooms and tightly closed buds (instead of the larger flowers) to encourage new flowering. Another trick to having the biggest, best blooms is to keep them out of direct sunlight while they are flowering. This will not only extend total bloom time, but it will also help the flowers last longer in general.
This funky flower made our list because it’s so weird it doesn’t even have a nickname! The flowers look like horizontal, orange Lily of the Valley, but they are actually a member of the orchid family. They are part of the Pleurothallis genus to be exact, also called Bonnet Orchids for their tiny blooms’ resemblance to little baby bonnets. They can grow in a variety of different ways, as brush cover, as climbers, clumped and trailing, or as tall cane-like plants. Unlike regular orchids, these orchids prefer cooler temperatures and low moisture; they grow most comfortably at very high altitudes.
If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, we’re not really sure what the Devil’s Hands are, but we sure love to look at them! Some call this tree the Monkey’s Hand or Monkey Paw, but we wouldn’t recommend making any wishes on it. The Devil’s Hand is native to Mexico where the Ancient Aztecs held it in extraordinarily high religious regard, who harvested the claw-like flowers for generations and generations. The fruit produced by this tree has an earthy taste and has been used for years in traditional medicine to treat heart disease and heart conditions. Unlike some tropical plants the Devil’s Hand tree is extremely hardy and can grow relatively fast, reaching upwards of 40’ to 90’ tall!
At first glance, it looks like this little plant’s got a fungus on its flowers, but that’s actually the way it is supposed to look. Another real one-of-a-kind flower on our list, the Welwitschia Mirabilis is the only member of the Welwitschiaceae family. It could be considered the Methuselah of plants; it’s been around since the Jurassic Era and in some instances can live to a ripe old age of 1,500 years. If you’ve never seen or heard of this plant before don’t be offended, it only grows in one place on Earth: a small strip of land in the Namibia Desert between Angola and Namibia. How can a succulent plant that hasn’t changed for thousands of years continue to survive in one of the driest places in the world? It gets all of its moisture from fog and dew, that’s how.
Our list of weird flowers would simply not be complete without the charming, colourful Lobster Claw! Also known as the False Bird of Paradise and Wild Plantain, the Lobster Claw’s cheerful flowers emerge from clumps of leaves that look like bananas. The reddish flower-like bracts actually hide the plant’s true flowers, which require birds with specialised beaks for pollination. An excellent landscape plant, the Lobster Claw can grow up to a height of 3.5’ tall and they bloom several times each year. Be sure to provide your Lobster Claws with plenty of water and fertiliser to maximise your blooms.
