Summary: Email claims that attached photographs show a very rare plant with parrot shaped flowers that grows in Thailand. (Full commentary below).
Status: True
Example:(Submitted, May 2008)
Subject: The Parrot Flower
THE PARROT FLOWER
This is a flower from Thailand . It is also a protected species and is not allowed to be exported. This will be the only way we will be able to view this flower. Prepare to be amazed:
THE VERY RARE PARROT FLOWER.
WHO BUT GOD COULD DO THIS!
Commentary:
According to the text of a widely circulated email, attached photographs depict a very rare flower that grows in the shape of a parrot. The message claims that the "Parrot Flower" grows in Thailand and is a protected species. The photographs have generated a great deal of controversy since they first began circulating several years ago. Many commentators have suggested that the Parrot Flower is no more than a hoax and that the images have been digitally manipulated.
However, although they are indeed quite rare, Parrot Flowers do exist and the photographs are genuine. According to information on ExoticRainforest.com, the plants grow in Thailand, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and portions of east India and are rare members of the genus Impatiens, "Impatiens psittacina". The word "psittacina" translates as "parrot like". Steve Lucas of ExoticRainforest.com has published comprehensive information about the species and the history of the above email forward and photographs. The site notes that the information about the plant was first published in 1901 in the Curtis Botanical Journal Magazine by the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. And the now famous photographs included above were taken by a Thai grower of the plant in 2001. Scans of Hooker's original description of the plant along with additional photographs of Parrot Flowers are also available on the website.
Moreover, information about Impatiens psittacina in an article by plant expert Ray Morgan notes:
Recently there has been some controversy
on the internet regarding an
Impatiens picture published on
certain websites, bearing a certain
resemblance to a parrot in flight.
Many people have suggested that the
plant did not exist and the picture
was a fake, computer-generated from
parts of other pictures. It has been
referred to as the parrot plant. The
plant, however, does indeed exist,
and is Impatiens psittacina, which can
be found growing in northern
Thailand, northern India and
Myanmar (formerly Burma).
It was described by JD Hooker in
1901 and the specific epithet means
parrot-like. The flowers, which do
resemble a parrot in flight, are shades
of pale lilac, reddish purple and
white. It is not closely related to
the parrot-billed species, but
deserves a place in this story.
The claims in the email that the plant is protected in Thailand and cannot be exported also appear to be true. During his research, Steve Lucas was told that "Thai law made it illegal to own, collect, or export plants or seeds". The rarity and limited geographic range of the species along with the difficulty of obtaining seeds or specimens for plant collections have probably contributed to speculation that the photographs are not genuine. Also, some versions of the email include incorrectly spelled versions of the plant's scientific name (Impatiens psittacina), which may have also made it difficult for recipients to track down reliable information about the species.
It has apparently become fashionable for at least a few self-proclaimed image manipulation experts to declare virtually any strange or unusual image that crosses their email inbox or browser as "photoshopped". Of course, many images that circulate via the Internet are indeed composite images or outright fakes. But in this case at least, the images are genuine.
