The exotic and incredible Parrot Flower -- is it real?

The incredible, surprisingly true, "Parrot Flower"

Have you ever heard of the Parrot Flower?

It was brought to North America's attention sometime around 2005 or so when an email began to circulate --  maybe it showed up in your inbox one day -- which read as follows:

Subject: VERY RARE PARROT FLOWER 

A FLOWER ALL THE WAY FROM THAILAND.
THE VERY RARE PARROT FLOWER 

Thought this was too beautiful not to share.

 There are several variations on the email. Naturally, with photo manipulation software so readily available, people were skeptical, as they had every right to be. 

But amazingly, this was one chain email that was not a hoax. The flowers are in fact 100% genuine, and as the email states, grow in parts of Thailand, Myanmar and India. Accordng to popular urban legend website Snopes the flowers' scientific classification is Impatiens psittacina.

Take a moment to marvel at the beauty of these appropriately-nicknamed flowers. Just when we think we've seen it all, nature surprises us. There are more images here (on a Thai website).