Overview
- Researchers formally named and described Thismia daemona based on morphological and molecular evidence published in PhytoKeys, classifying it in Thismia section Geomitra.
- The plant is leafless, mostly black with horn-like appendages, and does not photosynthesize because it gets nutrients from subterranean mycorrhizal fungi rather than from sunlight.
- T. daemona was found in Thong Pha Phum National Park at nearly 1,000 meters elevation, which extends the known northern and elevational range for section Geomitra previously recorded only in the Malay Archipelago.
- The species is known from a single patch smaller than a football field containing fewer than 50 individuals and has been provisionally assessed by the authors as Critically Endangered because the site is visited by tourists.
- Authors urge more field study and community-aligned conservation that protects the plant’s fragile soil fungi networks, and the discovery raises Thailand’s recorded Thismia species count to sixteen.