06/16/2026
Exotic Flora & Fauna 06/16/2026
Welcome to the 24th post in a weekly series entitled "Exotic Flora & Fauna!" This is a dive into various exotic plants and animals you might not normally hear about, and each Tuesday we'll feature a different and potentially mind-boggling entry. If you’re interested in the incredible, the spooky, and the downright kooky, check out these posts!
Imagine if you will, taking a thin cross-sectional slice of a person’s leg. Pretty gory, right? With all that muscle, and nerves, and a bone somewhere around the middle? Now what if that was a flower. You probably just threw up. Nick sure was close when Producer Donna walloped him with this disgusting display of floral f**kery. Behold, the Giant Pelican Flower (Aristolochia gigantea), also strangely known as the Brazilian Dutchman’s Pipe. This thing is just going to get stranger and stranger from here on out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristolochia_gigantea
Morphology:
Aristolochia gigantea is an ornamental plant, with woody vines that help it climb other foliage to get access to the sun. The leaves are relatively simple, your average heart shape without much going on. And then there are the flowers. Yup. That’s where the main show begins and ends. Colored in reds and maroons with pink to white veins running every which way, you’ll think you’ve entered a maniac’s arboretum if you happen upon these freak flowers. They aren’t small flowers either, sometimes as large as a human head! Can you imagine turning a corner in a forest and that thing is staring at you? Nick encourages you to wear your brown pants if you find yourself in the native range of this ill-appearing inflorescence.
Distribution & Habitat:
If you guessed this thing was tropical, congrats, you get a gold star. Or maybe a really fleshy looking one. These subtropical plants are native to Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama. It doesn’t the tolerate the cold at all, and temperatures below 50 °F (10 °C) are a death sentence. So if you reside in the Midwest, your only chance of being spooked by this thing drops significantly. For everyone else, well, good luck.
How Exotic?:
On a scale of 1 to 10, Nick’s News gives the Giant Pelican Flower a 3 out of 10. It isn’t a pelican, and it sure as hell isn’t a dutchman’s pipe. It’s just a freaky flower that likes to hang out on a couple of small islands and confuse the hell out of butterflies. Did we forget to mention that the flowers confuse butterflies to intentionally kill their larvae with their toxic leaves? No? Ok, maybe this thing gets a 4, because that’s pretty damn evil.
We hope you found this article informative and fun! Stay tuned for future installments, available on Tuesdays, as we continue to explore various exotic flora and fauna! If you have any questions or would like to submit an exotic flora and fauna suggestion, contact us here on Facebook or email us at [email protected]. As always, we love you all and have a great day!
