Plantwatch: An extraordinary orchid that lives and flowers underground | Plants

Rhizanthella a extraordinary orchid It lives its entire life underground. It blooms underground, has no leaves, and survives by feeding on the nutrients of a fungus that gets its nutrients from the soil and by attaching to the roots of the broom bush. Melaleuca uncinata.

Rhizanthella caused an international sensation when it was first discovered by a farmer plowing a field in Western Australia in 1928. It still remains incredibly difficult to find, often by searching for areas with the right habitat and carefully scraping the soil looking for the flowers buried beneath (tiny reddish flowers wrapped in creamy pink buds). The flowers also have a heady vanilla scent and can be pollinated by termites or small flies.

There are five species of Rhizanthella, all of which are rarest orchids In the world. With so few surviving plants, they are in danger of extinction due to habitat loss and drought caused by climate disruption.

But botanist Kingsley Dixon at the University of Western Australia I’m trying urgently To preserve the orchid, we grow the fungus with orchid seed in a laboratory and transfer it to pot-grown Melaleuca bushes.