The dark bloom of Banora

Pam Gates with her bat flower, Tacca chantrieri.

John Gass

A BANORA Point woman has something growing in her garden that sends visitors to her garden absolutely batty.

Commonly called the bat flower, the Tacca chantrieri produces an impressive dark flower that looks a lot like a bat.

The plant is also known as the devil's flower or devil's tongue because of its striking appearance.

Pam Gates said she grew several of the South-East Asian native plants in her garden and every visitor wanted to take a flower home.

"People say that I'm a green thumb but I don't know," Ms Gates said.

"I have two plants that came from the base of the first one and one of those has 12 flowers on it. The one I was pampering isn't doing as well with only four flowers. So I don't know how much care they need."

Ms Gates said even if they don't require a lot of care, they were certainly getting a lot of attention.

"People just love the flowers," she said.

"The long strands coming off the flower are quite sticky."

Banora Point Garden Club president Frank Young said he had only seen a few plants in the area.

"Very seldom do you seen them growing anywhere around here even though is a sought after plant," Mr Young said.

"They are a native of South-East Asia so prefers a warmer climate that the one we have here although there are a few about."

Mr Young said not a lot was known about the plant in gardening circles.

"I have any number of big reference books on plants and I couldn't find information anywhere," he said.

Ms Gates plans on growing more of the spectacular flower and has started cultivating plants from seed.