Fairy Lantern

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Beccari, the botanist

Bending down to get a closer look, he took a few sketches of the bizarre flower, which he would later come to call a “fairy lantern”, and moved on to explore the rest of the forest noting what he saw as he went. The year was 1866, and not a single scientist would record the newly discovered Thismia neptunis for another 151 years.

Beccari was a keen botanist and travelled to Sarawak on the hunt for plants. He lived in a small hut in Gunung Matang, on the edge of a primeval forest which he extensively explored. Over the years as he got more confident, he would journey deeper and deeper into the forest. Primarily interested in palms, he was nonetheless fascinated by everything he came across, from giant Rafflesia flowers, to bioluminescent fungi with which he could even read a newspaper at night.

But one of the most enduring mysteries of Beccari’s expeditions through Southeast Asia is that of the fairy lanterns. During his travels in the region over the years, he managed to discover and describe six different species of Thismia, one from New Guinea, one from Singapore, and the other four from Sarawak.

 

The curious case of Thismia

Very little about Thismia is actually plant-like. Going against what most think about plants, they have shunned the light, lost all of their chlorophyll and adapted to a subterranean life instead. They have become parasites, growing underground and tapping into the filaments of fungi to steal their nutrients.

Curiously, these fungi themselves are in a symbiotic relationship with many of the more traditional plants growing above the surface in the rainforest. The fungi provide the plants with water and essential nutrients that are limited in such a competitive environment, while the plants supply the fungi with energy produced in their leaves. So despite not having any leaves or chlorophyll to speak of itself, the fairy lanterns are actually still getting its energy from photosynthesis, just in a very roundabout way.

The only time that fairly lanterns breach the soil and see the light is when the strange plants produce their even curiouser blooms. Looking more like something you might expect in the ocean, it grows to just nine centimetres tall, with the majority of this length made up of three long spindles jutting up towards the canopy. Yet even then, a botanist knowing what they are looking for would have to be lucky to find it, as the plants only produce a flower once a year for a few weeks.

Still, Beccari’s interest in these bizarre plants grew. He accurately described where in the forest to look for them, particularly in places in which the forest was densest, the shade deepest and the soil richest. He seemingly actively hunted for them when living in Gunung Matang.

 

Backtracking Beccari

It was not until 2017 that a group of Czech researchers went on their own expedition to retrace Beccari’s steps through Sarawak, in search of these near mythical plants. Incredibly, the forest at Gunung Matang has remained untouched since the Italian botanist left in 1868, allowing the modern-day scientists to examine the exact same locations.

And there, among the leaf litter and detritus of the rainforest, they found Thismia neptunis. The incredible rediscovery allowed them to take the first ever photos of the plant, and record in more detail its intriguing life history, although even now the botanists are still baffled by many aspects of its existence.

While they clearly produce flowers to aid in reproduction, it is still not known how exactly they are pollinated. The Czech researchers noted that they found dead flies within the blooms, suggesting that they enlist the help of insects, but without further study they can’t make any firm conclusions.

If they want answers to these questions, the botanists may need to act quickly. The team estimate that no more than 50 of the plants survive within this remnant forest, and they recommend that Thismia neptunis should be listed as critically endangered. This is also in part due to the growing human settlements around the edges of the park and threatening its continued survival.

The rediscovery of the enigmatic fairy lantern highlights the importance of preserving these patches of rainforest. Only by letting the trees stand and preventing the deforestation that has ripped through many other parts of Borneo have botanists been able to go back to the same patch of forest explored 150 years previously and find these critically endangered plants.

It is hoped that Thismia neptunis will not be alone in clinging on in this land, and the researchers suspect that the other species of fairy lantern described by Beccari, along with many of the other plants he discovered during his explorations, will still be found.

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