New 'Devil Flower' Species Found Hiding in a Thai National Park

A devil in the leaf litter

Botanists combing through the leaf litter of a national park in western Thailand have described a new species of flower with a name to match its looks. The plant is Thismia daemona, a small black bloom nicknamed the "devil flower" for its horn-like appendages and patches of reddish-orange that resemble a demon's glowing eyes. Researchers from Chulalongkorn University and Prince of Songkla University found it on the forest floor of Thong Pha Phum National Park, and according to their study, published in the open-access journal PhytoKeys, it is the 16th species of its genus recorded in Thailand.

A plant that skips photosynthesis

Thismia daemona has no leaves and no green tissue. It produces no chlorophyll and cannot photosynthesize. Instead, like other members of its genus, sometimes called fairy lanterns, it spends nearly its entire life hidden beneath fallen leaves, drawing nutrients from underground fungi and surfacing only briefly to flower.

Plants with this lifestyle are known as mycoheterotrophs. They tap into the fungal networks that link the roots of neighboring trees, siphoning off sugars those trees made through photosynthesis. The strategy lets the devil flower grow in deep shade without ever competing for light.

That dependence also makes these plants hard to find. Because they spend almost their entire lives buried in leaf litter, they appear only when conditions suit them, and surveys can easily pass over them. The devil flower was spotted during botanical fieldwork in Thong Pha Phum National Park, in a patch of forest where nobody had expected a new member of the genus to turn up.

Found in the wrong neighborhood

The setting was part of the surprise. Species in this genus usually turn up in humid lowland rainforests, yet the devil flower was growing in a seasonal, montane evergreen forest at nearly 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level, an unusually dry and high spot for these plants. "Finding Thismia daemona in Thong Pha Phum National Park was indeed a major surprise," said Dr. Sahut Chantanaorrapint of Prince of Songkla University.

The identification rests on both the plant's shape and its DNA. The paper describes the species as supported by morphological and molecular evidence, and the genetic analysis places it in Thismia section Geomitra, a group previously recorded only from Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Its presence in Thailand pushes the section's known range northward for the first time. Until now, no member of section Geomitra had ever been recorded north of Peninsular Malaysia, which the researchers say gives the find weight well beyond the country's borders.

How it got its name

The name was a unanimous team decision. The flower is mostly black, with horn-like appendages crowning a dome-shaped "miter," while vivid reddish-orange patches around its base recall a demon's glowing eyes. The species name daemona points at that devilish look, and the researchers said the hidden, underground life of the plant on the forest floor made the choice obvious.

Fewer than 50 plants

For now the devil flower is known from a single population of fewer than 50 individuals, growing in an area smaller than a football field. The researchers have provisionally assessed it as Critically Endangered. That rating reflects its tiny range and the fact that its habitat sits inside a national park popular with tourists, where foot traffic can easily disturb the layer of leaf litter it depends on.

Chantanaorrapint says the plant's survival will depend on the people who live near it. He has called for a conservation approach aligned with the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere concept, which pairs biodiversity protection with human engagement, arguing that local pride in the area's natural heritage can protect the microhabitat while supporting community-led ecotourism. The formal description, by Tosak Seelanan and colleagues, is titled "Thismia daemona (Thismiaceae), a new species from Thailand supported by morphological and molecular evidence" and is available via phys.org and is indexed under DOI 10.3897/phytokeys.278.202868.