An expert team from Olomouc’s Palácký University’s Faculty of
Science discovered an unknown plant species in Borneo, university
representatives have revealed. The plant, which researchers had
named
Thismia hexagona, was found by accident, after a student member of the
team
lost his footing on wet ground.
Martin Dančák of the university’s Department of Ecology &
Environmental Sciences described the appearance of the plant as “very
bizarre at first sight” – not green, a seemingly leafless stalk
leading
most often with a single bloom and little tentacles. Thismia hexagona
ranks
among mycoheterotrophic plants, i.e. non-green plants without Chlorophyll.
Unlike most such plants, he said, it was not parasitic.