Overview
- Botanists from Chulalongkorn University and Prince of Songkla University formally described a new leafless species, Thismia daemona, from the forest floor of Thong Pha Phum National Park in western Thailand.
- The flower is mostly black with horn-like appendages and red-orange markings, and the plant lacks chlorophyll so it obtains nutrients from underground fungi rather than photosynthesis.
- T. daemona belongs to Thismia section Geomitra and was found near 1,000 meters in a seasonally dry montane evergreen forest, which extends the section’s known range northward from the Malesian lowlands.
- Researchers have documented a single population of fewer than 50 individuals in an area smaller than a football pitch and have provisionally assessed the species as Critically Endangered because its habitat is visited by tourists.
- The team urges additional field surveys, study of its mycorrhizal fungal partners, and community-led stewardship linked to sustainable ecotourism to protect the fragile soil networks that sustain these 'fairy lantern' plants.