''Thismia aliasii'' is a species of "fairy lantern" from the genus '' Thismia''. It was formally described in 2025 by Shakri Mohamad Alias after being found in a

forest reserve Forest reserve(s) may refer to: * Nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importan ...

in Gunung Chemerong, Malaysia. Only 5 individual plants have been found, and have been identified by the authors as critically endangered according to the

IUCN Red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

criteria.

Characteristics

''Thismia aliasii'' possesses multiple characteristics that differ from other ''Thismia'' species. All of their

tepals A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of ve ...

are equal in size and shape, but with different lengths of their inner and outer tepals. The inner tepals are typically 3 millimeters long, whilst the outer ones range from 26 to 33 millimeters. The plants identified stood at around 11 centimeters tall, comparatively smaller than that of other plants in their genus. ''Thismia aliasii'' does not use

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 ...

to produce their nutrients; they instead use a process called

myco-heterotrophy Myco-heterotrophy (from Greek , , and ) is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food from parasitism upon fungi rather than from photosynthesis. A myco-heterotroph i ...

, where they will absorb nutrients from nearby fungi. The roots do not have branches, and average 1.5 millimeters in diameter. The plants rely on small insects called

fungus gnats Fungus gnats are small, dark, short-lived gnats, of the families Sciaridae, Diadocidiidae, Ditomyiidae, Keroplatidae, Bolitophilidae, and Mycetophilidae (order Diptera); they comprise six of the seven families placed in the superfamily Sciaro ...

to help facilitate pollination and their reproduction.

Discovery

''Thismia aliasii'' was discovered during a field trip to

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 ...

by botanist Shakri Mohamad Alias. Alias stated that they had difficulty obtaining the plant for study due to the mountainous terrain and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The field trip was funded by the 12th Malaysian Plan, with additional funding provided by the Nagao Research Grant.

References

aliasii {{Authority control