Mycoheterotrophic Plants

How many of them are there?

Thismia limkokthayi Siti-Munirah & E.Chan

Thismia limkokthayi was found in 2022 close to a resort in the Genting Highlands (Pahang/Malaysia) on a nature trail, so far the only know location. It is described in Siti-Munirah et al. (2022), resembling five Thismia spp. from the southeast Asian 'Clavigera-group': T. clavigera, T. betung-kerihunensis, T. clavigeroides, T. kelantanensis, T. sumatrana. They all have rather slender floral tubes with longitudinal ridges, very short outer tepals and inner tepals that bend over the floral opening and unite their to build a 'mitre'. All species have three long filiform appendages atop the mitre, all lack an annulus (a lamella constricting the floral opening). However, T. limkokthayi is the only one missing transvers bars at the floral tube and which is brownish-black in appearance (only the filaments are yellow-orange). Moreover, it is the only of the six species having a fovea (cup-shaped depression) between the mitre appendages. There are more differences compared specifically to each species according to e.g. connective and mitre structures.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith