Flower Mouth

A rose with any other fangs...

His head is that of a deformed snake with dead black eyes, its jaws split so that when it opens its many-fanged, five-jawed maw it looks like the bloom of an unholy and monstrous flower.

— Description of Setrous, Demon Prince of Heretics, Dungeons & Dragons: Elder Evils

When a monster has a circular mouth with rings of teeth along the inside, that's known as a Lamprey Mouth. This is not that.

This is when a monster or character has a mouth that opens like a grotesque blooming flower, often with mandibles or other "petal"-like appendages opening up in different directions. Oftentimes, there may or may not be something resembling a Lamprey Mouth on the inside, but that's not always the case. When used, it is more often than not meant to resemble Vagina Dentata.

Not to be confused with having an actual flower for a mouth, nor about flowers with faces and mouths.

Compare Man-Eating Plant, which tends to have a big mouth. Sub-Trope to Monster Mouth. Not to be confused with Hanahaki Disease.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Some PSAs from The Real Cost (one can be seen here) involve an alien monster that represents what cigarettes would look like if they looked as dangerous as they are. It has a mouth that splits into six jaws with extra mouths inside.

Anime & Manga

• In Dandadan, Ayase, Okarun, and Shiratori are attacked by a Stock Ness Monster that can split its mouth open into four parts.
• Many of the dragons in Drifting Dragons have mouths like this. It does not make them any less delicious.
• The title beings in Parasyte are similar to the example of The Thing in their capacity for this. They commonly use their shapeshifting to unfurl the entirety of their disguise◊ as the head on their host bodies to devour massive chunks out of their prey.

Films — Live-Action

• Blade II: The "Reaper strain" vampires have a tongue which looks like this (buried inside a mouth with a lower jaw that splits in two), the end of which unfolds in multiple flaps with several smaller, rope-like tongues inside it.
• Blade: Trinity: The "vampire dogs" have a bottom jaw that splits into two halves.
• Deep Rising: The gigantic octopoid monster has tentacles that function like this, being closed until they detect prey and split open like a blooming flower to reveal an additional two-jawed inner mouth.
• The sand worms of 1984's Dune follow the typical depiction with a "three pedipalps" mouth. The 2021-2024 version meanwhile averts this, going for a Lamprey Mouth instead.
• Godzilla vs. Biollante: The titular Biollante's final form has a technique where she can expand her jaws into something resembling a grotesque, fleshy flower; it's fitting, considering that Biollante's ancestry is one-third plant, one-third human, and one-third Godzilla.
• The Host (2006): The mutant fish/amphibian monster has several pairs of beak-like and toothed mandibles surrounding numerous layers of fleshy lobes that can open very wide to swallow people whole.
• In Killer Klowns from Outer Space, the escaping trio have to disembark early from the firehouse-style sliding pole, because it ends in the gullet of a huge snaggle-toothed critter with a three-lobed mouth.
• Krampus: Der Klown the jack-in-the-box has a bottom jaw that splits into two.
• A Quiet Place offers a variant, as the mouth itself is simple but the whole head is covered in flower-like flaps◊ (particularly around the very sensitive ears).
• The Thing (1982): The Dog-Thing first reveals itself as an alien beast in the kennel with the other dogs by opening its head like a flower before attacking them. In a more literal sense, it later tries to attack the humans by shooting out a flower made out of dog tongues lined with teeth.
• Tremors: The graboids and their subsequent forms have large beaks and side mandibles that make their open mouths resemble disgusting flowers. The African species has an even more prominent blossoming maw.

Literature

• Alien in a Small Town: The Jan's tentacles each end in three-tendrilled "hands" with a mouth in the middle. Their species's giant predator, the Hoon, also has a three-part jaw, reminiscent of a Dune sandworm.
• Dune: The sandworms have a three-part jaw.
• Fragment: The spigers have four large mandibles, the insides of which are covered in rows of teeth and surrounded by several pairs of grabbing appendages. Most other Hender's life we see seem to have more vertebrate-like mouths.

Live-Action TV

• Shadowhunters: The Ravener demons are shapeshifters who also have jaws that split open in four different directions like petals, with stingers.
• Stranger Things: The Demogorgons from seasons 1 and 4 and the Demodogs in season 2 have mouths that split open into multiple petal-like mandibles.
• Ultraman Taro: Astromons, one of the first monsters in the series, has a giant flower on its stomach that acts as a second mouth. He uses it to consume another monster it's fighting against in his debut appearance.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: The head of Sertrous' aspect is a set of five snakeheads, missing their lower jaws and arranged radially like petals around a gaping maw.
• Warhammer 40,000: Several species of Tyranids have these, like the Mawloc and Haruspex.

Video Games

• Antarctica 88: The bigger monsters in the Antarctic caverns look like Demogorgons, only they stand more upright, and their mouths have four flaps as opposed to five.
• Low-level infected humans in Carrier sport this, with the "flowery" maw taking up most of their face.
• The first boss-grade monster spawned by the virus from Chaos Heat is a massive serpentine creature with a splayed mouth that opens into eight petals.
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location: Invoked with the Funtime animatronics. They were all built with their faces separated into segments that can move separately from each other. These shifting face plates can also split open all at once, revealing the creepy robotic face beneath. While In-Universe, this was done so the robots could be opened up for maintenance, out of universe, it makes for a terrifying Nightmare Face.
• Halo:
  • The Gravemind is reminiscent of a giant flower, and its mouth is reminiscent of a flower's petals as well.
  • The Sangheili/Elites have four petal-like mandibles lined with differing amounts of teeth, varying by game.
• In Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the giant Sand Worm that chases Ori and Seir out of the Windtorn Ruins has triradial mouthparts similar to the Dune worms.
• Resident Evil 5: The Majini, due to being infected by the Type 2 or Type 3 Las Plaga parasite, has the parasite coming out from the mouth which splits like a flower, in which they use it for biting the others or taunting. There's also the Duvalia, a type of mutated Majini with the entire upper body replaced by a hard-shelled parasite that shapes like a gigantic flowery mouth.
• Scars Above: The Tunnel Serpent enemies are humanoid snakes whose heads are gigantic mouths which splays out like a flower, where from within an Overly-Long Tongue lashes at you like a whip.
• Spore: The omnivorous mouth part "Dietrap" opens up like a blooming flower with plenty of teeth abound.
• Subnautica:
  • The Mesmer has a mouth that splits open four ways to reveal four tentacle-like appendages lined with teeth that lead to its actual throat.
  • The Squidshark from Below Zero resembles a Great White Shark with a mouth that can do this. This monstrosity can One-Hit Kill the player if they grab you at low health.

Web Original

• The tentaclostomes in Alien Biospheres have a mouth like this. In fact, they belong to a group called Anthostoma, which literally translates to "flower mouth".
• Epic Rap Battles of History: In The Joker vs Pennywise, there is an impressive special effect where Pennywise opens up his head like this. It's incredibly creepy.
• SCP Foundation: When SCP-929 ("The Cuckoo") engages in combat, its head splits open like a flower, releasing its Combat Tentacles.
  • The pǟnalka of Sarvi have jaws that open along multiple axes.
• The Sock Series have a Cerberus-like monster that have three heads with mouths that splits them in four when they open them.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: Ben's Blitzwolfer form has a snout that opens in four different directions when performing his sonic howl.
• The Rahkshi as depicted in BIONICLE: Mask of Light, which have reptilian faceplates that open into four slats when they scream to reveal the kraata controlling the armour. The kraata themselves have this. Notably the toys couldn't do this, though the faceplates did imply it, but it's so iconic that all other media includes this trait, from the books to BIONICLE Heroes, which used a similar mould to the toys that could separate, and a simpler kraata model.
• The Dragon Prince: The leech monster in "The Cursed Caldera" has a three-lobed mouth.
• Dragons: Riders of Berk introduces some dragon species that have a lower jaw that splits into two. The Snaptrapper specifically goes full on with the flower resemblance; its multiple heads lie still with their three lobed jaws open, luring in prey with a sweet smelling scent.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: As some canines, drooling and whimpering, approach Vox Machina's carriage, Keyleth assumed they were wounded dogs and got close, offering help. Then the lead "dog"'s mouth opened up like a flower with a tentacle-like tongue and the creatures attack the party.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Three's a Crowd", the characters are attacked by a Tatzlwurm, a gigantic worm-like creature with a three-lobed mouth. When it attacks, its entire head opens like a flower to reveal three yellow, spike-shaped fangs down the middle of each jaw and a trio of writhing, prehensile wormlike tongues sprouting from the center.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Rookies", the Rishi eels have four-jawed mouths that open radially.
• Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?: The giant tardigrade in the space-station episode opens one right at the camera.

Real Life

• If any real animal qualifies for this trope, it's the sarcastic fringehead. This fish does technically have two jaws, but its jawbones are "split" so that they flare out to the sides like petals when it opens its mouth.
• Some species of deep sea bristle worms and predatory marine snails have maws like this. Not having bones makes it easy to spread your oral orifice's margins really wide.
  • There are some SEM (Scanning electron microscope) photos of bristle worms that show the vicious-looking mouths of these creatures. We don't really recommend looking them up though, as they'll probably give you nightmares...

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