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WORLD✒ EDITORIALABSURDITY:
A ‘devil-like’ flower from Thailand is new to science — and critically endangered
Filed 2h ago · Via Mongabay · The Buffoon Desk
THIS STORY IS SCORED
Waltz (Tschikovsky Op. 40)
Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0
Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Botanists surveying Thong Pha Phum National Park in Thailand have identified a new species of fairy lantern, Thismia daemona, a leafless, chlorophyll-free plant that lives almost entirely underground and feeds off soil fungi. It was found at nearly 1,000 meters elevation, an unusual habitat for the genus, which typically prefers humid lowland rainforest.
The flower has a dark, horn-like floral tube with reddish-orange petals, which researchers say inspired its devilish name. Fewer than 50 individuals are known, confined to under 5 hectares along trails used by tourists, prompting a provisional critically endangered classification.
Study co-author Sahut Chantanaorrapint said local pride and community-led ecotourism could help protect the plant's microhabitat.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.
✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
A flower gets discovered and handed an endangered label in the same breath, which is about the fastest turnaround you'll see outside a government press conference. It lives underground eating fungus and shows its face only rarely, which honestly sounds like a reasonable strategy once you consider what happens to the plants that stick their necks out. Here's hoping the tourists step around it rather than on it.
