The species was first identified by British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1901, and it may well be Hooker's own description of it that appears in the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information of the Royal Botanic Gardens published that year:
Impatiens psittacina. (B. M. t. 7809.) 8. A handsome species with axillary solitary flowers 2 in. long pendulous from an arching peduncle 1 in. long. Sepals green, standard pale rose-coloured, wings streaked with red, hooked spur white with an irregular dash of bright carmine towards the base. "The Cockatoo Balsam." Burma. (Kew.)More images of parrot flowers can be viewed on the website of the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, Thailand, and the illustration that accompanied J.D. Hooker's original description of Impatiens Psittacina in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1901 has been posted on the UBC Botanical Garden website.
Other flowers that resemble birds include Impatiens arguta and Strelitzia reginae (Bird of Paradise).
(Thanks to Steve Lucas for first alerting me to the authenticity of these photos.)
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Sources and further reading:
Rare Thailand Parrot Flower Impatiens Psittacina
By Steve Lucas, The Exotic Rainforest
Parrot-Billed Impatiens
By Ray Morgan, The Plantsman, Royal Horticultural Society, June 2007
Botany Photo of the Day
UBC Botanical Garden, 27 January 2009
Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1901
Last updated: 11/21/12
