Exotic flowers encompass a multitude of flowers from the delicate and beautiful to the awkward and bizarre. Many commonly appear in home landscapes, botanical gardens and a variety of flower arrangements for their bright colors, sophisticated shapes or subtle fragrances. Other only occur in the wild or protected environments and are known for their disgusting stench, extra large size or strange appearance.
Tropical Flowers
Many tropical flowers are considered exotic for their delicate appearance, brightly colored blooms and foliage and tropical location. Commonly recognized tropical flowers include the bird of paradise, many species of orchids and plumeria. Bird of paradise has a large waxy bloom that resembles the plumage of a bird. The bloom opens upward from the bloom stalk and includes oranges, yellows, blues and purples. Orchids vary in appearance depending on species but commonly have a cup or central area that attaches to the bloom stalk and has petals surrounding the flower above and behind it. Some species of orchid are known for their strong fragrance that can be very delicate or unpleasant. Plumeria have small pink, yellow or white flowers commonly recognized for their intense sweet fragrance. They closely resemble the flowers of the ginger plant that are similar in shape and fragrance.
Rare Flowers
Flowers close to extinction or that occur infrequently in nature are considered exotic because of their rarity. Rare flowers include the black bat flower, snowdonia hawkweed and parrot flower. The black bat flower resembles a black bat with its wings outstretched and has a dark purplish-blue to blackish blue-purple color. The flower can reach up to a foot in diameter and has thin, whisker-like tendrils that can grow up to two feet long. The snowdonia hawkweed can only be found in seven patches in the Welsh valley of Snowdonia and grows small yellow flowers that resemble daisies. The parrot flower, or impatiens psittacina, closely resembles a perched parrot. It is found only in Thailand. Blooms are about five cm tall and grow best in limestone soil.
Unique Flowers
Flowers with unique characteristics, such as fragrance and size, and unusual appearance are usually considered exotic for their oddity. Some of these flowers include the titan arum, bladder campion and rafflesia. The titan arum, also known as the corpse flower, has a stamen that can grow larger than a fully grown human male. It has been nicknamed the corpse flower for its notorious stench of rotting meat. While much, much smaller than the titan arum, the bladder campion holds its place as exotic for its unusual bladder-like appearance. Small, rounded flowers have an off-white coloring and shape similar to that of the human bladder. The rafflesia, known also for its horrid stench of decay, has a flesh-like bloom that can grow up to the size of an armchair.