Flamingo Flower

Description:

Some more of my summer garden, this is a flamingo flower. Despite appearances that waxy red bit isn't a flower. It's a leaf. The little yellow thingy sticking off of it is called a spadix and THAT is the flower. This is definitely a look don't touch plant. The entire plant is toxic due to crystals of calcium oxalate. Ingestion from humans can cause erythema, blisters, severe irritation of the mouth and throat, and vomiting, but not death, to my knowledge.

Habitat:

Native to Ecuador and southwestern Colombia, it is also naturalized in other parts of the world. It is found in the Caribbean and Réunion