Thismia neptunis

Description

Thismia neptunis is a species of Thismia endemic to Malaysia. It was discovered by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in 1866, and described in 1878. It was not observed again until 2017, when it was first photographed by a team of biologists from the Czech Republic. T. neptunis lives underground, and is a myco-heterotroph, a plant which obtains nutrients through a parasitic relationship with fungi. It doesn’t bloom every year, and when it does, its flower appears above the soil for only a few weeks.