''Thismia neptunis'' is a species of ''

Thismia ''Thismia'' is a genus of myco-heterotrophic plants in family Burmanniaceae, known as "fairy lanterns". They are native to East and Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. Description ''Thismia'' are perennial,' ...

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 ...

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 ...

. It was discovered by Italian botanist

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 ...

in 1866, and described in 1878. It was not observed again until 2017, when it was first photographed by a team of biologists from the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It was found in the Gunung Matang massif in western

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

, in the

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

n part of the island of Borneo. Thismia neptunis Phytotaxa 340 2018 B

''T. neptunis'' lives underground, and is a myco-heterotroph, a plant which obtains nutrients through a

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 ...

relationship with fungi. It does not bloom every year, and when it does, its

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

appears above the soil for only a few weeks.

References

Endemic flora of Borneo neptunis Parasitic plants Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari {{Malaysia-stub