No, Its Not an Orchid: 7 Weird Questions About Bat Flower

No, It's Not an Orchid: 7 Weird Questions About Bat Flower

Look at a White Bat Flower (Tacca integrifolia) for the first time and questions are inevitable.
Is that one giant flower? Is it an orchid? Are those really whiskers? And what happens after this crazy thing finishes blooming?
Let's investigate.

1. Is that giant thing the flower?

Nope.
Those enormous white "wings" are bracts - modified leaves, not petals.
The actual flowers are the much smaller dark purple-maroon structures clustered underneath. One Tacca display can contain numerous individual flowers.
So what looks like one enormous flower is actually an elaborate floral arrangement.

2. Then what are those crazy whiskers?

They're not petals either.
The long dangling "whiskers" are specialized threadlike bracteoles. They can extend far below the flower cluster and are responsible for much of Tacca's unmistakable bat-like appearance.
Wings that aren't petals. Whiskers that aren't whiskers. 😾
Botany likes making things complicated.

3. Is White Bat Flower an orchid?

Not even close.
Despite its exotic, orchid-like appearance, Tacca belongs to Dioscoreaceae - the yam family.
Yes. Yams.
That glamorous white bat hanging above your tropical garden has more botanical family connection to a yam than to an orchid.

4. Is White Tacca just a different color of Black Bat Lily?

No - and this is a common misconception.
The famous Black Bat Flower is generally Tacca chantrieri. White Bat Flower is Tacca integrifolia.
They're close relatives, but different species, not simply different-colored versions of the same plant.

5. Which is more spectacular - White or Black?

Now we're leaving science and entering dangerous territory.
Black Tacca is dark, mysterious, and wonderfully strange.
White Tacca has enormous pale bracts contrasting with dark flowers and long whiskers, making the entire structure easier to see - especially in a shady tropical garden.
We have both, but if we had to choose?
Team White Tacca.

6. Don't cut that bat flower! Here's what happens if you leave it alone.

What happens when the flowers are finished? The show isn't necessarily over.
If pollination is successful, the flowers can develop into fleshy fruits containing seeds.
So resist the temptation to immediately cut off every fading flower if you want to watch the entire Tacca life cycle unfold.

7. So, why does this plant look like a bat at all?

That's the really interesting question.
The "bat" we see is our interpretation of a complicated structure made from bracts, flowers, and long bracteoles.
Nature wasn't necessarily trying to build a bat.
But somehow it ended up with white wings, a dark little face, and enormous whiskers anyway.
And we're certainly not complaining.

Plenty of plants grow beautiful flowers. Very few leave you wondering what on Earth you're looking at.

🛒 Shop Tacca Bat Head Lilies

📚 Learn more:

Tacca chantrieri in Plant Encyclopedia
7 Mistakes That Keep a White Bat Flower From Blooming
The SECRET growers never tell you: simple trick how to bring Tacca back to life and keep green
Did you know that Tacca is a cat?
Tacca wants to be a cat - and everyone loves cats
Perfect Halloween plant: Black Bat Lily (Tacca)
When plants cross into the Gothic: the Darker Bat Lily
What is the rarest Tacca?
The mystery of the White Bat Lily - the plant with wings and whiskers
A flying bat with whiskers
The rarest Green Tacca - Tacca leontopetaloides
When Bat Head Devil Flower is in bloom
Bat Head - Devil Flower

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