Rhizanthella is an extraordinary orchid that lives its entire life underground. It flowers underground, has no leaves and survives by feeding on nutrients from a fungus that gets its food from the soil and by connecting to the roots of the broom tree, Melaleuca uncinata.
Rhizanthella became an international sensation when it was first discovered by a farmer plowing a field in Western Australia in 1928. It remains incredibly difficult to find, usually by searching for areas with suitable habitat and carefully scratching the ground for the flowers buried beneath – tiny reddish flowers enveloped in creamy pink bracts. The flowers also have an intoxicating scent of vanilla and may be pollinated by termites or tiny flies.
There are five species of Rhizanthella, all among the rarest orchids in the world. With very few surviving plants, they are highly vulnerable to extinction after suffering habitat loss and drought caused by climate change.
But botanist Kingsley Dixon from the University of Western Australia is urgently trying to conserve the orchid by growing the fungus with orchid seeds in a laboratory and transferring them to pot-grown Melaleuca bushes.
