''Sapria himalayana'', commonly known as the hermit's spittoon, is a rare holoparasitic flowering plant related to ''

Rafflesia ''Rafflesia'' (), or stinking corpse lily, is a genus of Parasitic plants, parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host p ...

'' found in the

Eastern Himalaya ] The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. It ...

s.Adhikari, D., Arunachalam, A., Majumder, M., Sarmah, R. & Khan, M.L. (2003) "A rare root parasitic plant (Sapria himalayana Griffith.) in Namdapha National Park, northeastern India", ''Current Science'' 85 (12), p. 1669
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/ref> ''Sapria himalayana'' represents the extreme manifestation of the parasitism, parasitic mode, being completely dependent on its host plant for water, nutrients and products of

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

which it sucks through a specialised root system called

haustoria In botany and mycology, a haustorium (plural haustoria) is a rootlike structure that grows into or around another structure to absorb water or nutrients. For example, in mistletoe or members of the broomrape family, the structure penetrates th ...

. These haustoria are attached to both the

xylem Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue (biology), tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem; both of these are part of the vascular bundle. The basic function of the xylem is to transport water upward from the roots to parts o ...

and the

phloem Phloem (, ) is the living tissue in vascular plants that transports the soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis and known as ''photosynthates'', in particular the sugar sucrose, to the rest of the plant. This transport process is ...

of the host plant.

Geographical distribution

It has been recorded in

Namdapha National Park Namdapha National Park is a large national park in Arunachal Pradesh of Northeast India. The park was established in 1983. With more than 1,000 floral and about 1,400 faunal species, it is a biodiversity hotspot in the Eastern Himalayas. It ha ...

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

. There are historical records of the species from other areas in Northeast India such as

Mishmi Hills The Mishmi Hills are located at the northeastern tip of India, in northeastern Arunachal Pradesh. On the Chinese side, they form the southern parts of Nyingchi Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region. These hills occur at the junction of Nor ...

Aka Hills Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and largest town. It borders the Indian state ...

in Arunachal Pradesh, and in

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

and

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

, but there have been no recent records of the species from these areas. In Thailand it is found in Doi Suthep National Park,

Doi Inthanon Doi Inthanon (, ) is the highest mountain in Thailand. It is in Chom Thong District, Chiang Mai Province. This mountain is an ultra prominent peak, known in the past as Doi Luang Ang Ga (''Grand Mount Ang Ga'') or meaning the 'crow's pond top'. ...

Doi Phu Kha National Park Doi Phu Kha National Park () covers parts of 8 districts in the Luang Prabang Range, Nan Province, Northern Thailand and has rich natural resources. It is Northern Thailand's largest National park and rivers such as Nan River and Pua River, have ...

Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary The Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary (, ) is a protected area in Thailand in the northern part of Kanchanaburi Province and the southern part of Tak Province. It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1972, and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO ...

Kaeng Krachan National Park Kaeng Krachan National Park (, , ) is the largest List of national parks of Thailand, national park of Thailand. It is on the border with Myanmar (Burma), contiguous with the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve. It is a popular park owing to its proximit ...

in the

Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range (, ; , , ; ) is the geographical name of a roughly 1,700 km long mountain chain, part of the Indo-Malayan mountain system in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mo ...

. It is also found in the Dawna and

Karen Hills The Karen Hills, (, Burmese language, Burmese: ကရင်တောင်တန်း) also known as Kayah-Karen Mountains, are one of the main hill ranges in eastern Burma. They are located at the SW corner of Shan State and in Kayah State, a ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

and in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. Its

natural habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

are

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

s at altitudes between 800 and 1,450 metres. In Vietnam, it is only known from the Lang Biang Plateau, where it has been recorded at Tuyền Lâm Lake, the Nam Ban Protection Forest, and the Cam Ly area. Recently, ''Sapria himalayana'' has also been spotted by one amateur researcher and Child specialist by profession Dr. Jayom Karlo in the hills of Perlek Modi (94⁰49′ 18″ E to 94⁰44′ 47″ E and 27⁰ 49′ 10″ N to 27⁰47′ 45″ N) of

West Siang District West Siang district (Pron:/ˈsjæŋ or ˈsɪæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. History In 1989, territory was given from West Siang to the East Siang district. Since 1999, this territory has been in ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

. On 12 Nov 2020, in a village called Khunbi (Yulli),

Tengnoupal District Tengnoupal district :/teŋ-nə́u-pəl/) is a district in Manipur, India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the ...

(neighbouring district of Myanmar),

, India has spotted ''Sapria himalayana'' by a villager while tracking in a jungle nearby the village.

Description

The visible body is globose. The flowers are about 20 cm across,

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

and unisexual. They have 10

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s and are bright red in colour covered with sulphur-yellow spots. They appear above the ground, bloom for 2–3 days and have a putrid odour. Flowers are fleshy with imbricate

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

. Perianth is campanulate. Male flowers have 2-loculed anthers, broadly ellipsoid,

dehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that op ...

by apical pores; apical cupular body base convex; gynostegium blood red. The female flowers have a concave cupular body base with sterile stamens. Gynostegium stouter than stamens. Flowering and fruiting season occurs between December and February. After blooming, the flower dehisces and becomes dark in colour and subsequently decomposes slowly. Fruits are swollen and crowned with perianth. The seeds are of the size of a grape fruit and are blackish-brown in colour. ''Sapria'' is a root parasite and its usual hosts are

liana A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the Canopy (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...

sElliott, S. (1992) "Status, Ecology and Conservation of ''Sapria himalayana'' Griff. (Rafflesiaceae) in Thailand", ''Journal of Wildlife in Thailand'', 2(1) pp. 44–5
LINK
/ref> such as ''

Vitis ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...

'' and ''

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 ...

''. The flowering shoot is short, erect and unbranched. It has been suggested that flies pollinate it while seed dispersal may be by rodents, but this has not been confirmed by direct observation.

References

External links

* Liming Cai ''et al.'': Deeply Altered Genome Architecture in the Endoparasitic Flowering Plant Sapria himalayana Griff. (Rafflesiaceae). Current Biology, published online January 23, 2021; doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.045. See also: :
Scientists Sequence Genome of Rare Parasitic Flowering Plant
On: sci-news. Jan 25, 2021 {{Taxonbar, from=Q3205766 Rafflesiaceae Parasitic plants Flora of East Himalaya Flora of Assam (region) Flora of Myanmar Flora of Thailand Flora of Vietnam Taxa named by William Griffith (botanist)