"The Reluctant Orchid" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1956, and later anthologized in Tales from the White Hart.

Like the rest of the collection, it is a frame story set in the fictional "White Hart" pub, where the fictional Harry Purvis narrates the secondary tale.

According to the American orchid biologist, Joseph Arditti, Clarke told him that the story was inspired by the H. G. Wells story "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" (1894, Pall Mall Budget), which is mentioned in Clarke's story, about a carnivorous orchid that almost kills the man who buys it at auction.

Originally published in the magazine Satellite Science Fiction, the piece was later published as the eleventh story in Clarke's collection Tales from the White Hart.

[2] Hollywood writer Dennis McDougal suggests that Charles B. Griffith's screenplay for the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors may have been influenced by Clarke's story.