Scientists have discovered an unusual underground flower in Japan, which was considered extinct
Japanese scientists had to open a flower for the second time, which had already been discovered in 1992. In fact, he has never been seen since. Due to the fact that the habitat of this plant was destroyed as a result of the construction of an industrial facility, it was considered extinct for a long time. We are talking about a rare species of parasitic “fairy lanterns” – Thismia kobensis. Now that this flower has been rediscovered, it has become the world’s most northerly thymium species. This plant is not only very rare, but also unusual. It has long lost the ability to photosynthesis, and generally lives underground. All thymia feed exclusively on the resources that are taken from the mushrooms. In appearance, the thymia themselves are more like mushrooms than the plants we are used to.
Underground flower – amaze
The first time Thismia kobensis was discovered in 1992 in the Japanese city of Kobe, hence the name of the plant. This time he was found on a forest trail 30 kilometers from Kobe. For scientists, this is a great success, because it is not for nothing that the flower is called the “magic lantern”. This is due to the fact that thymias grow underground, but sometimes a translucent pale yellow flower with claw-like petals sprouts out of the ground. It stays on the surface for a very short time, and then hides underground again.
As a result, these plants, in addition to being rare, are also difficult to detect. It is possible that this is why the flower was considered extinct. According to scientists, the find helped shed light on the thymium genus and its unusual evolution. A detailed description of the plant is published in the journal Phytotaxa.
Thismia appears from underground for a short time, so the plant is difficult to detect.
How thymia eats
As we said above, Thismia kobensis has lost the ability to photosynthesize, therefore it does not have chlorophyll. For nutrition, the plant uses a process called mycoheterotrophy. Simply put, it “steals” nutrients from mushrooms that wrap around thymia roots. As you know, plants, in addition to photosynthesis, also consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which provides them with carbon. Thysmia also feed on carbon, but they get it not from the air, but from fungi, which in turn extract carbon from ordinary photosynthetic plants.
This way of feeding makes thymia dependent not only on the activity of fungi, but also on the trees that support the fungi. Accordingly, they are very sensitive to any changes in their habitat. At the same time, thymias live mainly in tropical forests, the number of which on the planet is drastically reduced.
A total of 90 species of thismia are known on earth, but many of them, such as Thismia americana, have already become extinct. Moreover, some of these plants fell into the category of extinct several decades after the discovery, as happened with Thismia kobensis.
It looks like a dried Thismia kobensis
I must say that this is not the first time that scientists have discovered a plant that was considered no longer existing. Previously, one of the “extinct” flower was discovered using a drone. Now we can assume that, in fact, not all of the extinct Thysmians really died out. It is possible that they are simply hiding from human eyes.
Plant migration – how thymia ended up in Japan
Examination of an underground plant has shown that Thismia kobensis is a descendant of T. americana, the only thymia known to have ever grown in North America. T. americana was discovered in 1912 in Chicago, but was not last seen until four years later, that is, in 1916. Fortunately, the specimen of this flower is well preserved in the museum, which allowed scientists to compare both species.
The similarity between the plants was almost complete. Moreover, this concerned not only external signs, such as the shape of the petals, but also the absence of some glands, as well as a number of other features. But how could a flower cross the ocean and end up on another continent?
Dried Thismia americana, extinct over 100 years ago, preserved in a museum
According to scientists, he could get from America to East Asia through the Bering Bridge, that is, along a strip of land, which, according to scientists, arose 35-36 thousand years ago during the ice age. Presumably, the bridge arose even before the glaciers covered the territory of North America. It is believed that people from East Asia first entered the territory of America along the same bridge, since the first traces of the appearance of people on the continent date back to this period.
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Finally, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with other unusual plants that will surely surprise you no less than the Japanese Thismia kobensis. If scientists hunt for thymia, then people try to avoid some of the plants discussed in this article.
