A new species of orchid found in Colombia is strikingly beautiful in the scariest way possible. The flower features a heart that looks like the devil.
Researchers stumbled across the aptly-named Telipogon diabolicus last year while cataloguing Colombian plants, according to a study published in the journal PhytoKeys. Only about 30 of the flowers remain, growing on a remote patch of land on the border between the departments of Putumayo and Nariño.
Due to its scant population, the blooms have been added to the IUCN Red List as a critically endangered species, according to a release. This elevated status requires a number of criteria, including analysis showing the likelihood of extinction in the wildis at least 50 percent within 10 years or three generations.
"This species is only known from the type specimens, which represent one location in [a] highly vulnerable habitat near the main road Pasto-Mocoa," the researchers wrote in the study. “It is expected that the current reconstruction of this road will have [a] negative impact on the habitat of T. diabolicus."-read more
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