''Rhizanthes lowii'' is a species of

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ent ...

flowering plant without leaves, stems, roots, or

photosynthetic Photosynthesis ( ) is a Biological system, system of biological processes by which Photoautotrophism, photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical ener ...

tissue. It grows on the roots of the ''

Tetrastigma ''Tetrastigma'' is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterize ...

'' vine. It includes the specimens with the largest measured flowers in '' Rhizanthes'', from 25 to 43 cm (10 to 17 inches) across. The flowers are

endotherm An endotherm (from Greek ἔνδον ''endon'' "within" and θέρμη ''thermē'' "heat") is an organism that maintains its body at a metabolically favorable temperature, largely by the use of heat released by its internal bodily functions inst ...

ic, not only producing their own heat, but they also have the rare ability to regulate their own temperature.

Taxonomy

''Rhizanthes lowii'' was originally described by

Odoardo Beccari Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. Life Youth and education (18 ...

as ''Brugmansia lowii'' in 1868, being the second of such ''Brugmansia'' species (The name ''

Brugmansia ''Brugmansia'' is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. They are woody trees or shrubs, with pendulous flowers, and have no spines on their fruit. Their large, fragrant flowers give them their common n ...

'' is now used for a Solanaceous genus related to Datura).

Bénédict Pierre Georges Hochreutiner Bénédict Pierre Georges Hochreutiner (1873-1959) was a Swiss botanist and plant taxonomist.Nationaal Herbarium NederlandBiographical page retrieved 2009-03-30 A native of St. Gallen, Saint-Gall, he studied theology and natural sciences in Genev ...

recombined the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

in 1930 to a new genus, ''Mycetanthe'', but

Hermann Harms Hermann August Theodor Harms (16 July 1870 – 27 November 1942) was a German taxonomist and botanist. Harms was born in Berlin. He worked as a botanist at the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Botanical Museum in Berlin. ...

recombined the

again in 1934, to give it its present name.

Distribution

It was first collected on a little islet (in a river?) near the Malaysian town of

Limbang Limbang is a border town and the capital of Limbang District in the Limbang Division of northern Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. This district area is 3,978.10 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 56,900. ...

, almost at the border of

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

. Originally, the species was believed to be present in the tropical forests of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, southern

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

, but after the 2000 revision of the genus ''Rhizanthes'', the specimens collected in Sumatra, Thailand and Malaysia were reinterpreted as two new, different species, on the basis of groups of morphological traits: ''Rh. deceptor'' and ''Rh. infanticida''. Thus the species as it is now

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

as of 2000 is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Borneo, where it was originally described from. Despite this, the

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

database for some reason states the distribution is restricted to Peninsular Malaysia. It has also been seen as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''Rh. zippelii'' by some authors, although this interpretation was not followed by most authorities. It is extremely difficult, if not always possible in some cases, to tell the four different species in ''Rhizanthes'' apart on the basis of morphology. Even more confusingly, plants of ''Rh. zippelii'' have also been identified (and photographed) from western Borneo, with the taxonomic changes, they can now be classified as ''Rh. lowii'', despite looking like ''Rh. zippelii''.

References

Rafflesiaceae Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari Thermogenic plants {{Malpighiales-stub