Episode 58: The Devil Flower

In Episode 58 we talk a walk through a mountain forest in western Thailand. It’s May. The air is wet. The ground is a carpet of dead leaves. Small bamboo leans in. Almost nothing down here wants to be seen. Then something does.

It is not green. It is not pretty in the postcard way. It looks like a thumb-sized lantern that crawled out of a nightmare and decided to bloom. Black body. Three thin horns. Two orange patches near the base that stare back at you like eyes. This is not folklore. This is a plant. And it doesn’t eat sunlight.

On May 13th, 2025, botanists working in Thong Pha PhumNational Park, in Kanchanaburi Province, found a plant that did not match the book.

Sources

https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.278.202868

https://phytokeys.pensoft.net/article/202868/

https://blog.pensoft.net/2026/09/02/new-devil-flower-species-discovered-in-thai-national-park/

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1141681

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260903064217.htm

https://gizmodo.com/this-newly-discovered-demonic-looking-flower-is-nightmare-fuel-2000806199

https://www.discovermagazine.com/a-newly-discovered-devil-flower-hides-beneath-the-forest-floor-before-emerging-with-black-petals-and-demon-like-eyes-49625

https://phys.org/news/2026-09-devil-species-thai-national.html

https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article-abstract/193/3/287/5815711