Black bat flower - Tacca chantrieri

Common Name :	Black bat flower, Devil's flower.
Botanical Name :	Tacca chantrieri
Family :	Dioscoreaceae
Bangla Name :	Motimunda (মতিমুন্দা)?
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Today our flower is an unusual one. The name of the flowering plant is Black bat flower, Devil's flower, Cat's whiskers, Voodoo flower, and many more. Not sure what it is called in Bengali. Found some people are calling this as Motimunda, but couldn't authenticate it. Botanical name of the plant is Tacca chantrieri and belongs to the plant family Dioscoreaceae. This plant is native to Southeast Asian region.

Black bat flower plant is a herbaceous plant that grows from the rhizomes. That's why the plant is perennial. A plant can reach up to 3-4 feet in height. Leafs are long and broad and leaf petiole are similar to palm family leafs (or banana). This plant prefers shady area and grows well under tall trees. This plant grows in wild where it is native. They prefer lot of humidity and needs plenty of water.

These are actually flower buds yet to bloom.

To me the Black bat flowers are very complex looking (inflorescences). It has two wide black bracts and two sepals (or may be four sepals) that looks like a flying bat. Inside those it has very long things which looks like the whiskers of a cat (hence name Cat's whiskers). And then it contains the small flowers there. Flowers are having a long stalk with black/purple color. I've only seen the flower buds.

Photos of Black bat flower (Tacca chantrieri) were taken from Shiddheswari, Dhaka during May 2015. It was in front of a house beside the road.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/