Plants > Dioscoreaceae & Dioscoreales
The Black Bat Flower (Tacca chantrieri), widely celebrated across international horticulture and tropical botany as one of the most enigmatic and visually dramatic plants on Earth, is a perennial understory monocot belonging to the yam family Dioscoreaceae. Strictly...
Plants > Malvaceae & Malvales
The Monkey Hand Tree (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon), revered in ancient Aztec Nahuatl culture as ‘mācpalxōchitl’ (hand-flower) and celebrated across international botany as one of the most surreal flowering trees on Earth, is a large, high-altitude...
Plants > Lecythidaceae & Ericales
The Cannonball Tree (Couroupita guianensis) is a monumental, botanical wonder belonging to the Brazil nut family Lecythidaceae. Indigenous to the lush, humid primary rainforests of the Amazon Basin, the Guiana Shield, and northern South America, this magnificent...
Reptiles > Gekkonids & Squamates
Kuhl’s Flying Gecko (Gekko kuhli), commonly known as the common flying gecko or parachute gecko, is an extraordinary, aerodynamically specialized arboreal squamate belonging to the gecko family Gekkonidae. Strictly indigenous to the humid, ancient primary...
Amphibians > Ambystomatids & Caudata
The Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum) is a stocky, exquisitely patterned fossorial amphibian belonging to the mole salamander family Ambystomatidae. Indigenous to the deciduous hardwood forests and floodplains of the eastern and central United States, this...
