This new plant that does not perform photosynthesis has been discovered in Japan

Known as mycoheterotrophic, there are some species of plants that have abandoned photosynthesis and that are only shown above the ground when they are fructified or in flower. Mycoheterotrophic plants live as parasites within forest ecosystems: they get all their nutrients from the fungi they parasitize.

Now, in the subtropical island of Ishigaki, in Okinawa (Japan), a new species of this type has been discovered: the Sciaphila sugimotoi. The finding will be published this Tuesday, July 25, in the journal Phytotaxa.

Sciaphila sugimotoi

Sciaphila sugimotoi is between five and ten centimeters above the ground, with violet flowers approximately two millimeters in diameter.

The research team responsible for this discovery has been led by associate professor Suetsugu Kenji of the Graduate School of Sciences at Kobe University.

The name of the new species, 'Sciaphila sugimotoi', is due to the graduate in the School of Bioenvironmental Sciences of the University of Kyushu, Sugimoto Takaomi, who also played an important role in the identification of the species.