Flower From Bambi: Gender, Voice Actors, and Facts

Flower from Bambi is proof that you do not need to be the hero to be unforgettable. He barely raises his voice, he hides behind his own tail when he gets shy, and he is, of all things, a skunk who got named after a flower. And yet he is one of the most beloved Disney sidekicks ever drawn. If you grew up on Bambi, Flower probably lives somewhere warm in your memory.

So let me give him the full deep dive he deserves: what kind of animal he actually is, whether he is a boy or a girl (a question people ask constantly), who voiced him, who created him, and a pile of fun facts I guarantee you did not know.

He is a gentle skunk with a surprisingly rich history.

A Delicate Introduction

When Walt Disney brought Bambi to the big screen in 1942, it was so much more than a story about a young deer. It was about childhood, friendship, loss, and growing up. And right at the warm center of that story was Flower. His very first scene is one of the most charming in the whole film.

While Thumper is teaching the young Bambi to talk, Bambi sticks his nose into a patch of blossoms and comes face to face with a baby skunk.

Trying to show off, Bambi calls the skunk a “flower.” Thumper cracks up and tries to correct him, but the little skunk just smiles and says, “He can call me Flower if he wants to. I don’t mind.” In one line, you learn everything about who this character is.

What Kind of Animal Is Flower From Bambi?

Let’s clear up the most basic question first, because people really do search for it. Flower is a skunk. Specifically, he is a striped skunk, the classic black-and-white kind native to North America. That is the whole joke of his name, of course. Skunks are famous for one thing, smelling terrible, and this one got named after a sweet-smelling flower.

His name is the ultimate irony. A skunk called Flower is a gag that works on every level. And Disney did not forget that he is a real animal underneath the sweetness. In the 2006 midquel Bambi II, Flower actually uses his skunk spray as a weapon to help drive off a hunting dog, a nice nod to how real skunks defend themselves in the wild.

Is Flower From Bambi a Boy or a Girl?

This is hands down the most asked question about the character, so let me settle it: Flower is a boy. He is consistently referred to as “he” throughout both films, he falls in love with a female skunk, and by the end of the story he becomes a father. There is no ambiguity in the films at all.

So why does everyone think he is a girl? Three reasons. First, the name “Flower” reads as feminine. Second, he has long, delicate eyelashes that we tend to code as female in cartoons. And third, his soft, high-pitched, bashful voice adds to the impression. Put those together and the confusion makes total sense, but Flower is, and always has been, a he.

Flower’s Personality

Flower is the gentle one of the group, full stop. He blushes constantly, often turning pink and hiding behind his own bushy tail whenever he gets a compliment or any kind of affection. He is friendly, sweet, and almost incapable of seeing the bad side of anything. The one thing that genuinely rattles him is the idea of falling in love, and when Friend Owl warns the trio about getting “twitterpated,” Flower reacts with a kind of innocent fear rather than the disgust Bambi and Thumper show. He is not as brave as Thumper and folds under pressure easily, but that softness is exactly what makes him so easy to love.

Flower and Thumper: A Friendship for the Ages

The friendship between Bambi, Thumper, and Flower is the warm heart of the entire film. Thumper is the brash, talkative one, Flower is the shy, tender one, and Bambi is the wide-eyed kid learning the world between them. That contrast is why the trio works so well. Flower’s loyalty shows up again and again, sticking by his friends through the forest fire and every encounter with Man. In a story that gets famously heavy, these three lifting each other up is the part that makes Bambi feel like a hug. They are the friends who stick around when life gets hard.

Flower’s Story in Bambi

After that first meeting, Flower becomes a fixture of Bambi’s young life. When winter rolls in, we get the adorable image of a slightly chubbier Flower deep in hibernation, refusing to be woken up for snow play and going right back to sleep until spring.

Come spring, the trio has grown up, and that is when Friend Owl delivers his warning about love.

The three swear they will never fall for it, and naturally Flower is the very first to go, completely undone by a single kiss from a female skunk. We do not see him again until the end of the film, where he proudly shows off his new son, a baby skunk he has named “Bambi” in honor of his best friend. It is a quietly perfect full-circle moment.

Petunia and Flower

The female skunk who steals Flower’s heart is the one who finally gets him “twitterpated.” She spots him, falls for him on the spot, and seals the deal with a gentle kiss that turns Flower bright red. From there, the two become mates and start a family together.

Here is a detail that surprises people: she is never actually named in the film. The 1942 movie just calls her a female skunk, sometimes credited as “Miss Skunk.” Over the years, different Disney sources and fan wikis have given her names, with “Petunia” being the most common and “Bluebelle” showing up in others. So if you have seen her called Petunia, that is the popular name, but the original film leaves her sweetly anonymous.

Who Created Flower and Who Voiced Him?

Here is the part that genuinely impressed me when I dug into it. Flower is an entirely original Disney creation. He does not exist in Felix Salten’s 1923 novel that the film is based on. Salten’s book is a much darker, more realistic story about survival, and Disney invented the cuddly comic sidekicks, Thumper and Flower, specifically to soften that heaviness for a family audience.

Two Disney legends are baked into Flower. According to Disney historian Andreas Deja, Flower was the very first character that the great Marc Davis researched and animated, before he even tackled Bambi and Thumper. Davis went on to become one of Disney’s famous Nine Old Men and the designer of Cruella de Vil and Maleficent. And adult Flower was voiced by Sterling Holloway, whose soft, folksy voice you absolutely know: he later became the original voice of Winnie the Pooh.

Across his appearances, Flower has had quite a few voices:

Stan Alexander (young, original film)
Tim Davis (adolescent, original film)
Sterling Holloway (young adult, original film)
Dallas McKennon (Thumper’s Great Race)
Nicky Jones (Bambi II)
Roland Rubio (LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest)

Fun Facts and Trivia About Flower

For such a quiet character, Flower has collected a genuinely fun stack of trivia over the decades.

A skunk went to war. During World War II, the Disney Studio designed hundreds of military insignia for US troops, free of charge. Of all the characters they could have picked, Flower was chosen as the mascot for several Chemical Warfare units. A skunk representing chemical warfare is the kind of dark-comedy detail you could never make up.

A few more facts worth knowing: like real animals, Flower eats extra in autumn to fatten up for his winter hibernation, which is why he looks a little rounder in the snow scenes. In Bambi II, he is given a specific phobia, chelonaphobia, a fear of turtles. And early character sketches for the “skunk” date all the way back to December 1938, showing just how long Bambi spent in development before its 1942 release.

He still helps real skunks today. Flower’s lovable image has had a genuine real-world impact. Wildlife sanctuaries, nature centers, and humane societies across the United States often name their rescued skunks “Flower” after him, using the character to teach the public that skunks are not the villains people assume they are. Not bad for a shy little guy who barely speaks.

Beyond the films, keep an eye out for Flower’s cameos elsewhere in the Disney universe. He pops up briefly among the toons in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and appears regularly alongside Bambi and Thumper in the series House of Mouse, including one episode where the villain Pete complains that the whole club “stinks,” much to poor Flower’s embarrassment.

That is the full story of Flower from Bambi, the gentlest skunk in animation. He is shy, he is sweet, he blushes at the drop of a hat, and more than eighty years later he is still melting hearts. Sometimes the quietest character in the room is the one you remember most.

Who is your favorite Bambi character, and did any of these Flower facts surprise you? Let me know in the comments.