I was kindly invited into a neighbour’s garden the other day who has a passion for orchids.  One of the more unusual exotic plants I was lucky enough to see and photograph is a black bat plant (Tacca chantrieri) and I have never seen anything like it before.

Here is some info on this unique plant from Gardening Central

The bat plant plant looks remarkably like the face of a bat. It even has whiskers and a tail. The bat plant is considered to be an exotic plant and will grow the best in warm, subtropical or tropical temperatures. It is usually grown as a house plant but could be grown outside in locations that are always warm. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t flower for quite a long time as it generally takes up to three years to produce its first flower, and several more years before it is a large, fully blooming plant. The end product, however, is more than worth the wait.

It has many, many flowers which form the head of the bat–these can be very dark purplish or truly black. The top of the flowers are covered with leaves, which are black.  The plant grows to be around three feet in height. The whiskers grow out of the flower base and hang down the sides. They can be as much as twelve inches long. The bat plant is very difficult to grow and is not a plant that is good for beginning gardeners. Even under tropical temperatures, the flowers are hard to bloom.

The bat flowers and leaves are a little eerie because they really do look like a bat. It is a plant that is bound to get an enormous amount of attention when it is in bloom. Everyone who visits will want to know where you got it and probably want to grow one of their own. The bat plant is hard to find but well worth the effort if you live in a warm climate.