Researchers have discovered a new species of ‘fairy lantern’, leafless plants that look like tiny glowing lights. Sadly, however, the organism might already be on the verge of extinction.

Plants in the genus Thismia, colloquially called ‘fairy lanterns’, draw nutrients from underground fungi and grow in parts of Asia, Australasia and the Americas. Siti Munirah Mat Yunoh at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia in Kepong and her colleagues described a new species of Thismia that was first found in 2019 in a Malaysian rain forest. The scientists named the plant Thismia sitimeriamiae after the mother of the local explorer who discovered it, in honour of her support for her son’s nature-conservation efforts.

Thismia sitimeriamiae is only about two centimetres tall, and sports an orange flower shaped like a funnel with an umbrella-like structure on top. The plant seems to be so rare that it should be considered critically endangered: just four individuals of T. sitimeriamiae have ever been seen, and wild boars have destroyed all but one of these, the authors say.