Plantwatch: new species of elusive fairy lantern found in Malaysia

It looks more like a sea creature than a plant - but Thismia malayana was discovered amid rotten logs in a rainforestFairy lantern plants are seriously weird. They look like something from another planet with their lantern-like flowers, spend most of their lives underground, have no leaves or chlorophyll and suck all their nourishment out of fungi living in the ground.Their official name is Thismia and looking for them is incredibly frustrating. They are often only seen when their small flowers poke above ground, although that happens for no more than a week or so. In fact, the plants are so elusive that one species, Thismia neptunis, was only found again 151 years after it was first discovered in Borneo and had to be identified from a picture made by the botanist Odoardo Beccari, who originally found the plant. Continue reading...