This is a close-up of the new orchid species Telipogon diabolicus showing its flower resembling a devil's head. (Photo : Marta Kolanowska)
The devil is in the details and this apparently literally holds true for a newly discovered species of orchid which possesses a heart that appears to be a demon's head, complete with horns, and two sinister red eyes.
This captivating and mysterious orchid was uncovered in Colombia in South America, where scientists named it as Telipogon diabolicus.
To date, an international team of biologists and researchers from the University of Gdansk have only found a single population of this extremely rare flower, which is only found on the dwarf montane forest in the southern regions of Colombia. This tiny area of the forest apparently only bears 30 of these orchids.
The flowers can be described to possess a reddish or maroon veins with striped, delicate white petals and a dark solid, violet or mauve color for its center. The stems can grow anywhere between 5.5 to nine centimeters long.
Since this orchid species is just newly discovered, this rare and beautiful orchid species has been already included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List and declared as Critically Endangered.
Researchers also say that along with the most recent catalog of plants in Colombia, this list included 3,600 orchid species that represent almost 250 genera. They also believe that hundreds of species continue to remain undiscovered where there are 20 new species were discovered only last year in Colombia.
This new study is published in the journal PhytoKeys.
