12 Flowers That Don't Look Like Flowers (Monkeys, Bees and More)

In short: many flowers mimic insects, animals or even faces to attract the pollinators they need. Orchids are the masters of disguise.

Is it a bird? Is it a monkey? Nope, it’s just a flower doing its job. All of the flowers below are real, with no tricks or edits, and they grow naturally around the world, though some are much harder to find than others. Here are 12 of our favourites. For even more, see 40 of the world’s weirdest flowers.

Flowers That Look Like Animals

1. Bat-faced cuphea (Cuphea llavea)

Photo by Forest & Kim Starr on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, cropped

Native to Mexico and Central America, this little plant has flowers that look like a bat’s face, or tiny mice to some. It grows to around 400 mm and flowers from spring to autumn. Good news for Aussies: it can be grown throughout Australia, so ask your local garden centre for cuphea (KYOO-fee-uh) ‘Tiny Mice’.

2. Monkey face orchid (Dracula simia)

Photo by El Funcionario on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Look closely and you’ll see a tiny monkey’s face. The flowers are said to smell like a freshly cut orange. Sadly, you won’t grow these at home unless you live in or around the cloud forests of Ecuador and Peru. Be wary of seeds sold online: even in the unlikely event that they’re real, they’re very unlikely to germinate.

3. Flying duck orchid (Caleana major)

Photo by Caroline Jones on Wikimedia Commons (CC0), cropped

An Australian native! This small ground orchid from eastern and southern Australia has a flower that looks remarkably like a duck in flight. It isn’t trying to attract ducks, though: the “duck’s head” is a hinged lip that snaps down when a male sawfly lands, trapping him briefly against the pollen. It has never been grown successfully in cultivation, so you’ll need to look for it in the bush, usually in spring.

Flowers That Look Like People

4. Naked man orchid (Orchis italica)

Photo by Mark Freeth on Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Well played, Mother Nature! Each flower on the spike looks like a tiny person, so this orchid pretty much named itself. It grows wild around the Mediterranean, from southern Europe to North Africa and parts of western Asia.

5. Hooker’s lips (Palicourea elata)

Photo by elisabeth tonglet on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

This rainforest shrub from Central and South America looks like a pair of bright red, pouting lips. The “lips” are actually bracts, modified leaves that surround the small flowers and attract hummingbirds and butterflies. They’re only puckered for a short time before the flowers open.

6. Devil’s hand (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon)

Photo by Jared Dubberlin on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Another Mexican native, with a very creepy flower. The stamens look like a clawed red hand reaching upwards. The tree grows to around 15 metres tall and flowers from spring to summer.

7. Snapdragon seed pod (Antirrhinum majus)

Photo by K. Chaikovska (Kate Chkv) on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped

The garden snapdragon is so pretty in full flower. But once the flowers have finished, take a closer look at the seed pods and you’ll see tiny skulls. Snapdragons come from southern Europe and the Mediterranean, but they grow almost anywhere. Check your gran’s garden next time you visit.

Flowers That Look Like Insects

8. Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera)

Photo by Holger Krisp on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped

The lip of this orchid looks like a fat, furry bee sitting on the flower, though some people think it looks more like a duck. It grows across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Oddly, in northern Europe it mostly pollinates itself, without needing the bees it imitates.

9. King in his carriage (Drakaea glyptodon)

Photo by Jean and Fred from Perth, Australia on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped

One of Western Australia’s hammer orchids, this flower has evolved to trick one single insect, a thynnid wasp, into pollinating it. The flower mimics the shape of a flightless female wasp and even releases a scent like her pheromones. The male grabs what he thinks is a female, the hinged lip swings him into the pollen, and off he flies to be fooled again.

Flowers That Look Like Something Else

10. Darth Vader flower (Aristolochia salvadorensis)

Photo by M108t on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped

Some say it looks like Darth Vader’s mask; to others it’s an old Spanish conquistador’s helmet. Either way, it’s a rare flower that smells like rotting meat. Insects are drawn into the mask-shaped flower and held there by tiny hairs. As they struggle free they get covered in pollen, then fly off to the next flower and repeat the process, pollinating it.

11. Dawadawa (Parkia biglobosa)

Photo by TreeAid on Flickr, CC BY 2.0

These look like party lights hanging from a tree. The African locust bean, or dawadawa, matters a great deal across West Africa: almost every part of the tree, from roots to leaves, is used in traditional medicine, and the fermented seeds, rich in protein, are a popular seasoning.

12. Cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis)

Photo by Garonzi Stefania on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped

The cannonball tree, from Central and South America, gets its name from its fruit: heavy, round balls that make a noise like a small explosion when they drop. The fleshy flowers look a bit like the man-eating plant from the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors. They make two types of pollen: one sterile, to reward the bees that visit, and one fertile, which ends up on the bee’s back as it helps itself to the good stuff.

Why Do Some Flowers Look Like Other Things?

Flowers exist to reproduce, and most need a pollinator to carry their pollen. Looking like something else is a clever way to get the right visitor.

Some orchids use sexual deception. The bee orchid and Australia’s hammer orchids, including the king in his carriage, mimic the shape, fur and scent of female insects. Males try to mate with the flower and leave carrying its pollen. Others, like the Darth Vader flower, smell of rotting meat to lure flies. And many “faces” are simply happy accidents of shape that only we notice.

People have always found meaning in flower shapes too. The Victorians even gave flowers secret meanings: read about floriography, the language of flowers.

More Weird and Wonderful Flowers

If you’d like to see more strange flowers, check out 40 of the world’s weirdest flowers, see the lotus pod, or meet some flowers you should handle with care.

Prefer flowers that look like flowers? Our orchids are strange enough to be interesting and beautiful enough to give.