Rare and Beautiful: Valuable and Vulnerable Flowers of the World

Did you know that over 1500 species of flowers are so rare they’re considered critically endangered or nearly extinct? 

Some are extinct in the wild but common in cultivation. Sadly, it’s a long list and very few people will ever see truly rare flowers in person unless they travel to distant places. Like all rare things in this world, they are valuable and valued. 

If you’re wondering about the rarest types of flowers and want a closer look at the blooms that are seldom seen, keep reading. We’ve got all the rarest flowers you won’t find on every other run-of-the-mill list. 

Hawaii – Home Of Tropical Rare Flowers

Hawaii has the unhappy distinction of the highest number of endangered and extinct rare exotic flowers in the world. Almost 600 plant species from Hawaii are known to be endangered: 90% of the indigenous flowering plants are endemic, occurring nowhere else in the world.

Here are some of the amazing, rare flowers from those islands:

Cooke’s Kokio: Kokio cookia is the rarest of all. The deciduous trees bear dark orange flowers of a most unusual shape that produce quantities of nectar to draw nectar-feeding birds such as hummingbirds. Only three trees were found on Molokai Island in the 1860s and, within a century, there was only one left. 

Habitat loss and degradation, loss of nectar-feeding pollinator birds and serious problems in propagation have contributed to Kokio’s rarity. Efforts continue to find a reliable method continue. Other endangered Kokio species include Kokio kauensis and Kokio drynarioides. 

The Olulu or Alula: Brighamia insignis is a very strange plant like a large cabbage on a thick fleshy trunk: fragrant yellow flowers on long stalks protrude forth from the leaves. It grows on steep cliffs along the Na Pali coastline on Kauai with some on Niihau.

Rare Flowers In The Andes Mountains – Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru

The Andes mountains extend the length of South America, towering along the Western side of the continent. The Andes has about 15 000 endemic species, especially in Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia and Peru. 

The Flower of the Andes, Chuquiraga jussieui Is called the flower of true love. The plant’s rare exotic flowers resemble torches or flames on a spiny candelabrum. It has spiky leaves and flowers that, much like love, can cause wounds if handled carelessly! 

Bomarea uncifolia is a rare Ecuadorean vine that produces pendulous tassels of pink tubular flowers tipped in green. It is a member of the popular and widely known Peruvian Lily – Alstroemeria which you have probably bought as a cut flower from a florist or planted in your garden.

Rarest Flowers In The Heights of the Himalayas

As the world’s highest mountain range, which experiences extreme conditions, the Himalayas is home to many endemic and endangered plant species. The stunning Himalayan blue poppy Meconopsis baileyi and M. betonicifolia have made their way from the rocky heights of Tibet to the gardens of Britain.  

The glorious Rhododendrons and Azalea species found in the world’s gardens originally had their homes in the Himalayas. Some are now extremely rare due to tourist trekkers using them for firewood. Rhododendrum leptocarpum, the Narrow Fruit Rhododendrum, has pale yellow or white blooms but only 16 known plants exist in the Sikkim Himalaya.

Specialisation and Symbiosis = Strange Rare Flowers

Many rare flowers are very specialised and require specific conditions and symbiotic relationships to successfully flower, set seed and germinate. The Cape Floral Kingdom in South Africa has low-growing Proteas that are pollinated by mice, shrews and ants. Protea nana, P. cordata and Leucospermum arenarium are three that have co-opted nocturnal mammals as pollinators. Many Proteas are pollinated by sugar birds and sunbirds drawn by copious sweet nectar.

Orchids are highly specialised and often need a particular insect for successful pollination; Orchids provide a variety of rewards for their pollinators – nectar, food hairs or oils, waxes, resins and fragrances supply food and sexual aphrodisiacs. The Bumblebee Orchid, Ophrys bombyliflora, is pollinated by solitary male Eucerys bees. 250 Australian orchid species lure male Thynnine wasps with a pheromone identical to female Thynnine wasps. The wasps copulate with the orchid flowers giving pollination services in return.  

The huge parasitic plant Rafflesia arnoldia – Padma in the native Sumatran languages – produces huge rusty orange flowers that appear directly from the tropical forest ground. Bizarre and smelly, the flower can be a metre in diameter and weigh up to 10 kg, making it the largest known flower in the world. Stamford Raffles, after whom the plant was named, wrote, “I should, I think, have been fearful of mentioning the dimensions of this flower, so much does it exceed every flower I have seen or heard of.”  Carrion flies, ants and shrews aid in pollination and seed dispersal.

Australia has 150 Banksia species that produce large cylindrical flowers that resemble overgrown pot scourers. They produce nectar lavishly, attracting sugar gliders, honey and pygmy possums, honeyeaters and bats to assist pollination. Once fertilized, the flowers form hard cones that are cracked open by the powerful beaks of lorikeets and cockatoos. 

Left to themselves the cones fall to the ground and require fire to pop the seeds free to germinate and grow. Several species such as the Feather Leaved, Matchstick and Granite Banksias are endangered. Too frequent and too hot fires such as Australia has been experiencing are detrimental to the Banksias and their animal dependents.

Rare Giants that Infrequently Flower 

Some flowers are rare because they only bloom once a year, once a decade or once a century; they may bloom only for one day or, more commonly, one night. 

The Queen of the Andes – Puya raimondii – takes things to extremes – it only flowers once every 80 – 100 years but it makes up for it by producing a single massive 12 metre (40 foot) tall spike covered in thousands of florets. It towers into the thin mountain air of Bolivia. All that effort exhausts the Puya plant, and it dies within weeks. This unique Queen is considered one of the plant wonders of the world.

The Tahina Palm – Tahina spectablis – is a spectacular plant. It grows in Madagascar, flowers only once when it is a century old and was only discovered in 2008 when it flowered – an enormous branched inflorescence eight metres tall was found. Fewer than 100 known individuals exist within a tiny area of 4,8 ha or 12 acres. Like the Queen of the Andes it dies after fruiting.

Queen of the Night – The night-blooming Cereus  Selenicereus grandiflorus – is an exotic rarity that flowers one night a year – exquisite large blooms open at sunset and fade by dawn. One growing in our garden reaches a good 10 metres up into a tree. It has just completed its annual flowering over several nights. The fragrant flowers are white as the moonlight they bloom in, but by morning they have closed and wilted, dropping to the ground soon after. 

The Corpse Flower, Amorphophallus titanium, is a giant in the floral world. Indonesians call it Bunga Bankal because it stinks of rotting meat or carrion. It’s not a rare flower that you would choose for its fragrance!  It produces a single enormous bloom with a spathe about three metres or 8 foot tall after 7 – 10 years. Having done so, the huge flower wilts within 48 hours and puts its energy into producing about 400 round, orange-red fruit that takes about six months to ripen. That done, it has exhausted its energy supply built up in the corm over the previous sterile years and usually dies. It can be seen in 90 botanical gardens around the world.

New Hybrids Of Rare Beautiful Flowers

Developing new hybrids of desirable flowers may pay big dividends if you hit the jackpot but it can take a long time and cost a lot of money to get there. In the initial period after release individual plants will be very expensive to buy. Two examples are the Shenzen Nongke Orchid and the Juliet Rose.

Shenzen Nongke Orchid: The Shenzen Nongke Orchid was created in the laboratory of the eponymous agricultural company. It took eight years and was the first genetically modified laboratory orchid released in 2005. When the first plant was put on auction, an anonymous buyer paid £160 000 making it the most expensive plant ever bought. You must be patient as it can take four or five years before it blooms. The care of a plant like this must be nerve-wracking.

Juliet Rose: David Austin was the rose breeder who developed Heirloom English roses. The Juliet Rose took him fifteen years of patient trial and error plus £3 million before he won his Juliet. Eventually introduced to the public in 2006 at the annual Kew Garden Show of the RHS – Royal Horticultural Society, the first plant sold for £10 million – a very good initial return on his investment. Since then, Juliet has become one of the favourite roses for weddings – its lush multi-petalled cup shape, apricot colour and delightful scent are sure-fire winners. It’ll only cost you £22.50 to purchase one now!

Risen From The Dead – Resurrected Extinct Species

There is something miraculous when a plant or animal thought to be extinct is rediscovered. This happens more often than we might imagine, which is a sign of hope to me to never give up on something. Here are a couple of recent rediscoveries:

Gasteranthus extinctus from Ecuador’s cloud forest, was named in 1985 for its suspected, soon-to-be extinct status. It then vanished for 36 years. A new survey in 2021 spotted the distinctive bright orange flowers in a piece of remnant forest. Further research revealed another nearby clump that had been photographed in 2019 but nobody had been able to identify the plant. 

As mentioned, Hawaii is a hotspot for endemic rarities. A recent drone survey of the  Kalalau Valley cliffs on Kaua’i Island rediscovered Hibiscadelphus woodie, thought to be extinct since 1996, having only been discovered in 1991. Its vibrant yellow flowers are noticeable when in flower but in the photograph of the inaccessible spot where the three plants grow, it is astonishing that it could be found, even with a drone.

The latest resurrection is in Japan. A Fairy Lantern called Thismia kobensis, a parasite of fungi, was only discovered in 1992. The site was then destroyed during the construction of an industrial park and it was considered extinct. Thirty years later, in 2021, it was a wonderful surprise when its fragile transparent flowers were re-discovered on a forest trail about 19 km from Kobe.

The Rarest Flowers In The World

Rothschild’s Slipper Orchid or Gold of Kinabalu from Northern Borneo has been collected to the point that fewer than 50 individual plants remain in the world. As a result, this beauty’s value is worth more than gold. One stem of its blooms will cost $5 000 but that price escalates every year.  Other Paphiopidelum orchid species in the same situation are Urban’s,  Liem’s, Sang’s, Fairries and Vietnamese Paphiopidelum species. 

The world’s rarest flower is Middlemist Red, a Camellia variety collected in China in 1804. It then became extinct in the wild. Only two places still have plants – Chiswick House in England and a greenhouse in New Zealand.  

These are the ones we know but many thousands will go into extinction before we even realise they existed. Rarity is exotic, beautiful and valuable but also vulnerable. Rare flowers are true treasures that can be easily lost thanks to natural and man-made disasters.