Rhizanthella speciosa facts for kids

The Rhizanthella speciosa is a special kind of orchid that lives its whole life underground! It's a flowering plant, but you'd never see its flowers above the soil. This unique plant is found only in the Barrington Tops area of New South Wales, Australia.

This orchid is a mycoheterotrophic herb. This means it doesn't get its food from sunlight like most plants. Instead, it gets nutrients from fungi that live in the soil. It's like a plant that "borrows" its food! As of September 2020, scientists were still working to officially accept R. speciosa as a valid name.

What Does Rhizanthella speciosa Look Like?

This amazing orchid doesn't have any leaves. It grows horizontally underground with a special stem called a rhizome. It's probably similar to another underground orchid called R. slateri.

How Does This Orchid Flower?

From October to early November, the Rhizanthella speciosa produces a flower head. This head is about 15 to 30 millimeters wide, which is roughly the size of a large marble. Inside, it holds about fifteen to thirty-five tiny flowers, each only about 5 millimeters across.

The flower heads are a beautiful bright mauve or pinkish-purple color. They are surrounded by 16 to 18 thick, overlapping structures called bracts. These bracts are like protective leaves, about 10 to 12 millimeters long. After the flowers are pollinated, they create a fleshy, narrow fruit called a drupe. When ripe, this fruit is pinkish to light maroon.

How Was This Orchid Discovered and Named?

This fascinating underground orchid was first found in 2016. A scientific artist named Maree Elliot discovered it. Later, in 2020, two scientists, Mark Clements and David Jones, officially described it. They wrote about it in a science journal called Lankesteriana. The plant material they studied came from Barrington Tops National Park.

What Does Speciosa Mean?

The second part of its name, speciosa, comes from a Latin word. It means "showy" or "splendid." This is a bit funny for a plant that stays hidden underground!

Where Does Rhizanthella speciosa Live?

Rhizanthella speciosa was found in Barrington Tops National Park. It grows under a thick layer of fallen leaves in a type of forest called "tall wet sclerophyll forest."

What Kind of Trees Grow Around It?

The forest where it lives has large trees like Sydney blue gum, tallowood, and turpentine. There are also smaller rainforest plants growing underneath these big trees, such as Trochocarpa laurina and Synoum glandulosum.

Is Rhizanthella speciosa in Danger?

As of 2020, scientists only know about 50 of these plants. They were all found in just one small area. Even though the type of forest it lives in is common, no other groups of these orchids have been found yet.

Because so few plants are known, this species is considered "critically endangered." This means it's at a very high risk of disappearing forever. To help protect it, the exact spot where these plants grow is kept a secret.