Rediscovery of Thismia neptunis (Thismiaceae) after 151 years

Abstract

Thismia neptunis, as many of its congeners, is a poorly understood species that has only been known from the type collection and its limited original description. In January 2017 it was rediscovered in the type area in the Gunung Matang massif, western Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia. The paper provides the amended description and drawings of the species, very first available photographs and short notes on taxonomy and historical context of Beccari's work on Thismia.

Thismia sumatrana (Thismiaceae), a new species from West Sumatra, Indonesia, with discussions on the taxonomic identity of Thismia clavigera

“…As previous studies have suggested that the precise identification of Thismia specimens requires the observation of floral characteristics that are hidden in the perianth tube (e.g. Sochor et al 2018a,b), the flowering individual of the specimen was removed from the herbarium sheet and rehydrated, by boiling in water for ca. 2 min, in order to investigate the specimen’s inner floral morphology.…”

“…highly reduced aboveground parts and small size that allows them to be easily covered by fallen leaves). Indeed, as more comprehensive field expeditions have been undertaken, a number of Thismia taxa have been discovered and described from various countries in Asia (Chantanaorrapint et al 2016, Kumar et al 2017, Sochor et al 2017, 2018a,b, Suetsugu et al 2017, 2018a,b, Sujanapal et al 2017, Tsukaya et al 2017, Chantanaorrapint and Suddee 2018, Hroneš et al 2018, Nishioka et al 2018, Yunoh 2018). Accordingly, the genus has been updated to include ca.…”

Oxygyne: An extraordinarily elusive flower

“…Oxygyne yamashitae was described in 2008 (Yahara & Tsukaya, ); indeed, the first taxonomic monograph of Oxygyne was published only in 2018 (Cheek et al, ) and raised the number of recognized species from four to six. Meanwhile, recent discoveries in the related genus Thismia include T. cornuta , T. pallida (Hroneš et al, ), and T. hexagona (Dančák et al, ) in Borneo; T. filiformis in Thailand (Chantanaorrapint, ); T. clavarioides in Australia (Thiele & Jordan, ); the rediscovery of T. neptunis —not seen for 151 years—in Borneo in 2017 (Sochor, Egertová, Hroneš, & Dančák, ); and T. kobensis found preserved in a Japanese natural history museum, and probably now extinct (Suetsugu, Nakanishi, Kobayashi, & Kurosaki, ). This remarkable spate of recent discoveries, coupled with elusive life history, suggests more species await discovery in the Thismiaceae.…”

Thismia domei and T. terengganuensis (Thismiaceae), two new species, and T. javanica, a new record from Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia

“…In 2018, six new species were described from Sarawak and two from Sabah. Sochor et al (2018a) recently rediscovered the magnificent Thismianeptunis in Sarawak after 150 years. In total, Sarawak has about 10 species of which 9 are endemic: Thismiaacuminata Hroneš, Dančák & Sochor, T.laevis Sochor, Dančák & Hroneš, T.nigra Dančák, Hroneš & Sochor, T.viridistriata Sochor, Hroneš & Dančák, (Sochor et al 2018b), Thismiacornuta Hroneš, Sochor & Dančák (Hroneš et al 2018), T.kelabitiana Dančák, Hroneš & Sochor (Dančák et al 2018), T.bifida M.Hotta, T.clavigera , T.episcopalis (Becc) F.Muell, T.neptunis Becc.…”