Answer to March
Horticulture Challenge

These are two views of this plant. Do you recognize it?

ANSWER: It is the Black Bat Plant (Family:Dioscoreaceae; Genus:Tacca, Species:T. chantrieri), native to southeastern Asia, often referred to as the bat flower, devil flower, or cat whiskers. It is an unusual plant in that it has black flowers. T. chantrieri has bracts that look like wings and are large in area. The flower can be up to 12 inches across. The bat flower has been commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine
SOURCE: Zhang, Ling; Barrett, Spencer C. H.; Gao, Jiang-Yun; Chen, Jin; Cole, W. W.; Liu, Yong; Bai, Zhi-Lin; Li, Qing-Jun (2005). "Predicting mating patterns from pollination syndromes: the case of "sapromyiophily" in Tacca chantrieri (Taccaceae)". American Journal of Botany. 92 (3): 517–524