Species in the Collection
Rainforest Tour
Orchids
The
Exotic Rainforest
This rare specimen
IS NOT a hoax and is not in The Exotic Rainforest collection!
We do not
possess the species nor offer it for sale!
Go to any major library and look in a scientific journal
titled Plants of India, Volume 4 and you'll find it!
Trying
to buy theThailand Parrot Flower?
Click Here.
Despite the claims of one website, this flower
IS NOT an orchid!!
Impatiens
psittacina
Hook.f.
Known on the Internet as
Known on the Internet as
The Rare Thailand Parrot Flower
This rare plant is not an orchid species.
This rare plant is not an orchid species.
The search for the Rare Parrot Flower from Thailand, Myanmar (formerly Burma)
and portions of east India
This is how the e-mail story of one of Nature's Rarest plants was tracked down.
The original 1901 botanical documents are included.
If you believe this plant is a fake and a hoax, as I once did, read all the evidence below!
The original 1901 botanical documents are included.
If you believe this plant is a fake and a hoax, as I once did, read all the evidence below!
Impatiens
psittacina
Hook.f.
Known on the Internet as
Known on the Internet as
The Rare Thailand Parrot Flower
Known to the people of Thailand as "Dork Nok Khaew"
Known to the people of Thailand as "Dork Nok Khaew"
Sometimes incorrectly spelled Impatiens psitticana, Impatiens psitticina, Impatiens psitticine
After you read this article, if you are still in
doubt as to the validity of this species, read Ray Morgan's magazine article:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F.../impatiens.pdf
http://www.rhs.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F.../impatiens.pdf
Many
people mistakenly believe Impatiens psittacina is an orchid, it
is not. The website that is now claiming the plant to be an orchid
has never done any scientific research! Instead it is one of the rarest members of the genus
Impatiens found in the world and is related to the Impatiens
plants you grow in your yard. This is the story of how we learned
about the species.
In late April of 2006 I received an email from my
friend Robert Black with 5 photos attached. The photos were entitled
the "Rare Thailand Parrot Flower". I'm certain many now reading
this also received a similar email. That email is currently on its
third or fourth trip around the world since early 2006. When the photos of
the Parrot
Flower from Thailand first appeared on the internet I began to receive
copy after copy via email. That was likely because this
website features rare plants and most people wanted to buy the plant!
I sell few plants. I collect plants. Since I'm a collector I began almost immediately researching
the plant and hit dead end after dead end.
the Parrot
Flower from Thailand first appeared on the internet I began to receive
copy after copy via email. That was likely because this
website features rare plants and most people wanted to buy the plant!
I sell few plants. I collect plants. Since I'm a collector I began almost immediately researching
the plant and hit dead end after dead end.
Many who write wrongly claim
the flower is an orchid. I knew that to be wrong since
orchids all have three petals and three sepals. This was obviously
something else. But what? The search was filled with
barricades since the supposed
scientific name was incorrectly spelled on the internet. The name that was circulating on some
plant talk sites was "Impatiens psitticana" and still others were
spelling it "Impatiens psitticina". Numerous other incorrect spellings
are also apparently in use. Close, but none was correct, and as a
result, those bad spellings do not show up on any scientific site.
But the name Impatiens psittacina can be found in many scientific
source books.
I
began in approximately March, 1006 to send emails to the government of Thailand and was directed to
the Plants of Thailand Research Unit. At first I was told they never
heard of such a plant, but finally, after numerous requests, was told it was a rare
species from the
north of Thailand and Thai law made it illegal to own, collect, or export
plants or seeds. No other information was provided. From
there I began to contact plant nurseries in the country for any
information and got the same response. A friend who has contacts
in Thailand asked one of his associates to check on the plant.
Same story. It was supposedly rare and illegal to
possess or export. A few Thai growers were obviously unhappy with
my request for information having apparently been flooded with requests
for the plant. It appeared as though any information from Thailand
would not be easy to find.
I then began trying to locate rare impatiens
growers in this country and in Europe. I managed to find several and
contacted every one I could reach. None had ever seen the plant!
Many who had seen the photos thought the entire story
was a hoax. Then I received an email from an individual associated with
a major seed supplier. That individual was certain this whole thing was
a hoax and encouraged me to drop my search. He felt I was just wasting
my time and any plan to post anything about the "species" on this
website would be foolish. He also seemed to feel the photos were
created on a home computer.
As a retired commercial photographer I'm trained in the use
of PhotoShop and have used the program professionally for many years. I
formerly owned a company that created photography and computer graphics for large hotels,
government tourist agencies, clothing manufacturers, cruise lines and others. We've put together
some "impossible" images by combining numerous photographs to create a
single photo story. Composite photos are "faked" all the time and
I would guess many now reading this have seen the "photo of the year" of
a shark jumping out of the water attacking a helicopter. It is a
fake! Just look it up on the National Geographic website.
But these did not appear to be composite images so I began to closely examine the photos of
the Parrot Flower for traces of
the signs that often accompany PhotoShop retouched
photographs. None could be seen other than the edges of
the photos were "feathered" which is often done in
PhotoShop. The
creator was at least familiar with photo retouching programs.
But was it possible these were compositied on a home computer?
I
then ran across a mention of
Impatiens glandulifera. Some people on the University of British Colombia
(UBC) plant
discussion site as well as two other Canadian sites felt the "rare parrot flower" was actually that
invasive species which is common in Canada and some states in the United
States. That flower actually looked a great deal like the "tail
feathers" of the "Rare Thailand Parrot Flower" but bore
no other resemblance. So I became
a bit suspicious. Perhaps some very talented PhotoShop "genius" had actually created
the parrot flower by combining several flower photographs. Then, when I finally found the correct
spelling, Impatiens psittacina, on the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) the
information on that botanical site indicated the plant was from India
instead of Thailand! That really made me suspicious. If
the plant was real, could someone have used that name to forge an
imposter that looked like a parrot? It
was beginning to appear someone may have used the scientific name and dreamed up the "Rare Thailand Parrot
Flower"!
I tried with no success to find botanically certified photos of
the actual plant with the scientific name Impatiens psittacina. I contacted the Royal
Botanic Garden Kew in England and several gardens in India. None
had the photo on file, or if they did, were not willing to share it with
the public. So, for at least awhile,
I began to believe the entire story could potentially be a hoax. The more I researched the
more I began to believe this "plant" might simply be a fake PhotoShop
composite creation.
I became so deluded with
the idea it was fake I actually posted a note on one of the garden talk
sites saying I was certain it was a fake! Then I went so far as to
create my own "Parrot Flower" in PhotoShop using
Impatiens glandulifera as the base. But there was
still a
doubt. There were at least 5 photographs on the internet from 5 different angles.
Someone would have had to spend days if not weeks creating all those
angles and still make them all look real! That would take both
great talent and a ton of time. Creating quality composites is an
art. Not something anyone with $900 to spend on a copy of
PhotoShop can easily create.
Finally I began to receive emails from
rare aroid expert Julius Boos in
Florida. Julius knows his plants, especially aroids. We have exchanged
many emails regarding aroids (a specialized group of plants) I was researching for this
website.
Julius was convinced the "Rare Thailand Parrot Flower" existed. And for
good reason. He had seen it!
I trust Julius' instincts but I was still
skeptical. But Julius is a better researcher than I have
ever been. I had been trying for months to find the scientific text
where the plant was first described botanically with no success. Within days Julius
emailed a copy! Even the original botanist described the
impatiens as
looking like a parrot-like bird as a "cockatoo suspended by a string
from its shoulders". The flower existed!
In fact it is a species from several small geographic
regions in Asia: northern Thailand,
Myanmar (formerly Burma) and a neighboring state in India. Some sources claim it is found in Vietnam, the Himalayas and neighboring countries but that cannot be confirmed scientifically. The
Thai's even have a name for it and call the Impatiens "Dork Nok Khaew". Literally translated
that says: Dork or Dok = flower,
Nok = bird, and Khaew = green or the word for parrot. So the
translation would be Flower Bird Parrot.
Julius'
research had
located several people who had visited Thailand, met with the
photographer who posted the now famous internet photographs
and knew a great deal about the rare Impatiens species.
Julius had also tracked down an Impatiens expert in the United Kingdom,
Ray Morgan, who was
able to furnish the sought after original botanical publication
containing the description, a drawing of
Impatiens psittacina, and other
helpful information.
There is a link at the top of this page to an article by Ray which
includes information on Impatiens psittacina.
The plant was originally published in 1901 in the Curtis Botanical
Journal Magazine, Tab 7809.
The plant was credited as having been discovered in
the Shan States of Upper Burma in 1899 by a British officer named A.H. Hildebrand
who was working on a new boundary agreement between Thailand and Burma,
then known as Siam. In that publication botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker
described the species as resembling a "cockatoo suspended by a string
from its shoulders". (You can read Hooker's entire published description
below).
Hooker lived from 1817-1911 and is the
botanist of record who gave this species its name. The Latin name Hooker
chose, "psittacina", fittingly means "parrot like". Hooker examined
specimens grown at the Royal Botanical Garden Kew in Britain but did his
original work on the plant in India. It is
however unclear
whether Hooker drew his work from a live specimen or preserved
flowers. Hooker mentions in his description plants seen
at the Kew in London were grown from wild collected seed furnished by A.H. Hildebrand. The plants in England did not produce
seed, possibly due to the lack of natural pollinators or by a lack of
understanding at the time as to how Impatiens species can be
artificially pollinated. Although
unknown for certain, the seed
is likely to have a long viability since in 1901 mail was
done only by boat, foot and horse. However, some
Impatiens experts today appear to doubt the species has a long
viability.
Few people realize that nature has a
unique method of pollinating species while keeping a strain pure, and pollination is required to produce seeds. Almost all plants
produce a unique pheromone. A pheromone is similar to a perfume
designed to attract a particular insect or animal to do the work of
pollination. And in most cases, that pheromone smells to the male
of an insect species like a female ready to mate! That
is why there are very few orchid hybrids found in the wild! The
male is drawn only to a single species and won't land on any other.
If you don't have the correct pollinator, you don't get seeds!
While considering the possible
pollinators for this species, Invertebrate Ecologist/Taxonomist D.
Christopher Rogers, who studies insects, made this observation,
"looking at the plant,
and the position of the anthers (arcing over the flower aperture) and
the position of the nectar tube (high and down curled), I would guess
that a bird or a bat pollinates the plant. It is possible a moth or
butterfly with a very long “tongue” does the job, or maybe a wasp, but
the size of the flower leads me towards a vertebrate. That being said
the next thing to consider is the form and coloration of the flower. It
could be a wasp that would come upon a bird in order to capture
parasitic flies or heteropterans with which to provision its eggs."
Julius Boos tends to believe the
pollinator is more likely to be a
"large hairy bumble-bee.... with large, wide and hairy heads and bodies,
seemingly perfect to collect and distribute pollen."
Julius believes that insect
"would have tongues more
than long enough to reach the pollen source."
He continued,
"The flower also appears to
possess and provides a basal 'petal' as a 'landing platform' for a bee
to land and hold on to while feeding!"
Although both Christopher
and Julius are
obviously forced to speculate, due to the lack of documented
information, it appears regardless of which of these vertebrate, or
invertebrate, species does the natural job in nature it is highly
unlikely we have that specific pollinator in North America. As a
result, this impatiens species is not easily caused to reproduce in
captive growth.
Julius also managed to find information about the
Thai grower who posted the now famous photographs on the internet
(all with text in the Thai language). A Thai native, he is also an
experienced photographer and plant grower. The flower, which resembles a
multi-colored flying parrot, has an overall "blue" flower with reds and
other accent colors. Sources that preferred to remain unnamed
described the flower to another rare impatiens grower as "somewhat
difficult" to cultivate. The Thai gentleman also described the
Parrot Flower as possibly not being tuberous. The flower is said
by the Thai source to be seen in the wild in several color combinations
and tuberous plants were not seen in the "blue" colored flower but
mainly in the pink and yellow. Even those were reported to be
"tricky to grow" in spite of having tubers.
MORE INFO ON PAGE 2
According to an informed source in Thailand, the plant needs moist humid rain forest conditions. Far wetter than can be found in the majority of North America. An extremely knowledgeable source who is familiar with the plant has recently provided information the plant is known to grow in limestone soil with a pH that is higher than normal. That is likely the explanation for the "blue" coloration due to a botanical phenomenon known as "anthocyanins" (a condition where water soluble pigments appear red to blue) depending on the soil pH. The plant is apparently truly rare in nature and is not the "invasive vine" some on the internet who are not truly familiar with the species have speculated. As for the now famous Thailand Parrot Flower photos, those were taken by the Thai grower of a plant collected in 2001 near Chiang Mai, N. Thailand. But like many flower species, this impatiens has a limited blooming season. The blooming season for Impatiens psittacina in Thailand is October and November. And this impatiens grows tall!
Impatiens psittacina Facts:
Size: Plant grows to app. 6 feet (1.8)
meters
Leaf : Broad, sharply pointed, to 2 1/2 inches (6
cm)
Flower size: App. 2 inches (5cm)
Stem thickness: To 1/2 inch (1.5cm)
Bloom season: October/November in Thailand
Flower size: App. 2 inches (5cm)
Stem thickness: To 1/2 inch (1.5cm)
Bloom season: October/November in Thailand
Growing conditions: Tropical, humid, moist
MORE INFO ON PAGE 2
In his scientific description (bottom of this page) Hooker describes the species as being substantially less than one meter tall. That is likely due to the fact he never actually saw the plant in the wild and based his writings on the observations of an untrained individual, Mr. Hildebrand. Unlike the Impatiens you grow in your yard, according to the cover a Thai garden magazine (see info right), this plant grows to almost 6 feet tall (1.8 meters)! The species has a thick 1/2 inch (1.5cm) stem but normal 2 1/2 inch (6cm) leaves. We have no accurate dimensions on the bloom but a photo comparison of the flower to a leaf indicates the flower would be approximately 2 inches (5cm). Hooker's description (below) differs slightly from that when he states the plant is 1.5 to 2 feet tall (less than 60cm). Hooker admits he never actually saw the species in the wild and was basing his description partially on second hand information provided by a non-scientist.
This
rare plant is not the attractive
small Impatiens plant normally sold for landscaping. This
Impatiens is tall
like a bad weed and apparently will not
survive without moist, humid, tropical, rain forest conditions. The flower is
beautiful but even if you could keep it alive is not suited for the
average front yard garden unless you like weeds, high humidity, and lots
of rain! You likely would
not like the plant if you found one!
(See more photos on page 2.)
So why do so many people
believe this rare Impatiens species does not exist? It
appears even those who are otherwise knowledgeable about
Impatiens don't know very much about the very rare
species
in the genus. I recently ran across a very nice
website that sells and specializes in Impatiens.
On it, I found this quote:
"To begin with, there are
approximately 36 species of impatiens in the world".
I make no claim to be an Impatiens expert,
but based on my limited research just trying to locate
Impatiens psittacina, I knew that statement could
not be correct! A check of the International Plant
Names Index (Royal Botanic Garden, Kew in London) done
in April, 2008 reveals there are more than 1.300
Impatiens species in their records!
http://mrimpatiens.com/1389_records_found%20of%20impatiens%20sp.htm Many quite rare!
Even
more important, if
the species does not truly exist, someone needs to explain that to the scientists
who compiled the scientific text
Flora of India
Volume
4 as well as
the people of
Thailand who have seen it, photographed it, and furnished all the photos
on this and the following pages. The species has been well documented in both instances. The information in the box above came from the cover of
a Thai gardening magazine! Still, I
regularly receive email saying "I don't believe it".
Posts on the internet can be found as recently as July, 2007 claiming it
is a fake.
I received an email recently from a person who still believes the
plant is a PhotoShop workup of
Impatiens arguta. There is
a fellow in Canada who was spreading the word I personally "pasted" the photos
of a "fake" flower into the botanical drawings. There
are still several individuals in Canada who post on a variety of sites
this species is not rare, can be bought at dozens of websites, and grows
all over Canada! But not one link telling you where to go buy one
has ever been posted! Not one! I've also received complaints the drawings are not a
"perfect match" to
the photographs. Linnaean nomenclature, the system in use at the
time Hooker wrote his description, was far from perfect. It permitted many species to be
described
only from preserved or cultivated specimens. There is a possibility,
even though Hooker saw the plant in a botanical garden in India, these were drawn more than 100 years ago from
dried specimens. It is also highly likely the inks have faded so
the colors no longer match. But if you look closely the correct colors
and details are still there!
Until recently, I had been led to
believe by plant collectors in India the species did not occur in that
country.
Dr. John H. Wiersema, Ph.D., Curator of GRIN Taxonomy, (a part of the
USDA) recently furnished this information to verify in fact the species
can be found in only one portion of that country near the border with
Myanmar (formerly Burma), In an email he said,
"Our data comes
from volume 4 of the Flora of India (P. K. Hajra et al. 1997), which
indicates the species to occur in the state of Manipur in Northeast
India, as our data also indicate. The state of Manipur borders northern
Myanmar, where the plant is acknowledged by you to be native. This is
some 400-500 miles removed from Calcutta, which has no importance in
this context anyway, since Hooker never indicated the plant to be found
there, but stated simply "I found no specimen at all resembling it in
the Kew Herbarium, or in that of the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens,
Calcutta". Hooker had collected in India (with Thomas Thomson)
back in 1847-1851, but when he described I. psittacina he was already
approaching 85 years of age, and is unlikely to have been to India in
the few years previous after the introduction to Kew in 1899 of this
species. His comment is in reference to the Herbarium of the Botanical
Garden in Calcutta, from which he had the Impatiens specimens on loan
for study and verification, not the Botanical Garden itself. In any
case, there were no specimens of this species among this loaned
material. To sum up, it is perfectly reasonable that the Flora of
India is correct in indicating that this species occurs in Manipur state."
Like most Impatiens the plant is variable. Variations within plant species are quite common! Not all leaves and flowers of the same species are exactly alike. I can show you plants in my atrium where different specimens of the same species don't look exactly alike and have a variety of coloration and growth forms. Botanists and "plant nuts" disagree about those factors all the time which is one reason why so many plants have multiple scientific names, most of them now synonyms (same plant, other name)! Please note the Thai grower (who has a botanical background) stated there are color variations within this species in nature.
Like most Impatiens the plant is variable. Variations within plant species are quite common! Not all leaves and flowers of the same species are exactly alike. I can show you plants in my atrium where different specimens of the same species don't look exactly alike and have a variety of coloration and growth forms. Botanists and "plant nuts" disagree about those factors all the time which is one reason why so many plants have multiple scientific names, most of them now synonyms (same plant, other name)! Please note the Thai grower (who has a botanical background) stated there are color variations within this species in nature.
In September, 2007 I met a Thai family who owns a plant
nursery in Bangkok at the International Aroid Show in Miami, FL and
simply by chance asked if they were familiar with Impatiens
psittacina.
Instantly, the entire family said "yes"! And they then confirmed
the flower was not only common in the "blue" form seen in the photos but
also in a pink and yellow version. They were also amused that
people in North America believe the flower is a hoax. But if you
are still a doubter, look closely at the photos and the drawing below.
The curved "beak", which is the backwards pointing nectar tube
at the back of the corolla, and "string from the shoulders" are there, just the way Hooker drew
and described them over 100
years ago! If created in PhotoShop the person who supposedly fantasized them was
not only lucky but also a botanical expert and creative genius.
I've also been accused of
fabricating parts of this story because I don't name all my sources.
I agreed to withhold identities and will do so until given
permission to reveal names. Think about it, if you had this
very rare Impatiens in your greenhouse (a very few collectors do) would you want a lot of people climbing
over your fence to steal it? I receive email all the time from growers of rare
species complaining how many of their plants are regularly stolen by
"plant thieves". Seed sellers would pay top dollar for this rare plant
so they could attempt to artificially pollinate it or clone the species! And if you didn't know, plant
cloning is done every day, just ask your local nursery. It is called "tissue culture".
One last fact to ponder: If
someone told you there was a 20 foot tall (6 meter plus) rare plant with a 6 foot
(2 meter) group of flowers known to science as an inflorescence that
stunk
so bad it smelled like a rotting corpse would you doubt it existed?
Or if someone told you there was a plant with no stem, no leaves, no
roots
and a single flower 3 feet wide (1 meter) that can weigh 24 pounds (over 11 kilos) that
also looks and smells like dead meat would you doubt
that? Many
did! Both exist!
The first is known scientifically as Amorphophallus titanum, the "Corpse Flower".
Most
large
botanical institutions now have one as a major exhibit when it blooms. At
Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami it is known as "Mr. Stinky". Thousands
of visitors stand in long lines to see one in bloom! The second is also
known by the common name of "Corpse Flower" and is known scientifically
as Rafflesia arnoldii. So far no institution has learned how to
grow one in a collection. That plant is actually a parasite and grows inside a vine.
It is only visible when it blooms!
Growing in the rain forests of Sumatra and Borneo, the only place in the
world where it can be found, R. arnoldii has no leaves and grows
inside a vine which is a relative of the grape and is scientifically a
Tetrastigma species. Unless you saw evidence of an old
blossom, you could walk right past the host vine and never know the
world's largest flower lived inside. Both species are rare,
just like Impatiens psittacina. But just because you can't buy one easily doesn't
mean they are a hoax. The world of plants can truly be bizarre.
An interesting side note. The friend from
South Carolina who had originally sent me the photos called in early
2007 to tell me he and his wife had been to
dinner the night before at a local Thai restaurant. He asked the
waitress if she had ever seen the Thailand Parrot Flower and was
politely told, No. But within minutes the young lady brought
another Thai woman to the table who excitedly said, "Yes, from Chiang Mai".
Just like the Thai family I met in Miami, she then went on to describe the flower, unprompted, and used her hands
to describe how the flower had the "beak" of a parrot and was connected
to the plant like it had a string from the shoulders. She knew the
flower well, as do many people from north Thailand!
Like Thai
food? Try it yourself. Ask your waiter or waitress if they
have ever seen
"Dork Nok Khaew" near Chiang Mai, North Thailand. You may just be
surprised!
The original botanical
published work
as well as some of the Thai collector's photos (see page 2) are included for you to enjoy. We do not have the plant and we cannot tell you where to buy cuttings, starts
or seeds.
The
very rare plant is not available. Due to the tropical
requirements and reported difficulty
in
maintaining the species it is very unlikely it will ever be a common plant at
any nursery! No botanical garden we can locate has one on display
other than the Queen Sikrit Botanical Garden in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
For those who want to compare
the drawing to the photo I've positioned the "parrot" from the upper right
of the drawing beside the "parrot" from the upper left of the photo.
Judge for yourself. As for me, I believe! It's simply a scientific
fact.
If you are seeking information on other rare species, click on "Species in the Collection" at the top and look for the
If you are seeking information on other rare species, click on "Species in the Collection" at the top and look for the
Continue the Story!
This link will lead you to new photos and information regarding a tour to see the plant in Thailand!
This link will lead you to new photos and information regarding a tour to see the plant in Thailand!
Botanist Joseph
Dalton Hooker's
Original 1901 Description and Drawing
The botanical information
regarding Hooker's description (when and where published) can be verified
via the
International Plant Names Index http://www.ipni.org/index.html
Continue the Story!
This link will lead you to new photos not
in the email,
how to see it in nature and even a planting guide!
(if you can find one!)
Despite the fact I say several times on this
website I don't have the species, some folks appear to enjoy sending email
asking us to sell them a Parrot Flower plant. Sorry,
we do not have this plant.
I gladly try to answer email questions but email asking to buy
Impatiens psittacina will simply be ignored.