Here's a flower you won't want to give to your love on Valentine's Day.
While beauty is subjective, a certain orchid, found recently in Madagascar, seems to define ugly.
The orchid, dubbed Gastrodia agnicellus, looks nothing like the elegant blooms we might give to someone special. Instead, the leafless plant has short brown flowers that appear fleshy and scaly.
The flowers are folded tightly around what looks a tubular alien mouth, much like the mythical underworld demon demagorgon, which experienced a resurgence in popularity on the Netflix show "Stranger Things." But Gastrodia agnicellus lacks even the demogorgon's showy petals.
The orchid depends on fungi for nutrition and has no leaves or any other photosynthetic tissue, said Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. It remains underground in the shade of the forest for most of its life, and is likely pollinated by flies.
Nevertheless, scientists from the RBG Kew — who deemed it the ugliest orchid in the world — selected the flower as one of their top 10 highlights from the list of new plant and fungal species named in 2020. About 156 plants and fungi were found by RBG Kew and its partners in 2020 in Africa, Asia, the Americas and in the UK.
"Most people think of orchids as showy, vibrant and beautiful," RBG Kew said, "but Gastrodia agnicellus, newly named this year from a forest in Madagascar, is quite the opposite."
