2023-06-30 04:50:13
While the vast majority of plants grow above ground, this palm grows underground. The discovery was unveiled on Monday June 26, 2023 by researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (England) in the journals Palms and Plants, People, Planet.
baptized Pinanga undergroundthe species, discovered on the island of Borneo, southeast Asia, flowers a few centimeters underground, while the vast majority of plants swarm above ground to allow pollination and seed dispersal act.
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A rare botanical species
Scientists were alerted by a Malaysian botanist, Paul Chai, following the latter found the plant in 1997. The discovery has something to surprise and arouse the enthusiasm of scientists. So far, only one species with only subterranean living characteristics had been unearthed. it’s regarding the Rhizanthella gardnerian orchid living in Western Australia.
This plant grows underground between 6 and 30 cm deep, according to the searcher from the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), Étienne Delannoy.
The Pinanga underground has male and female flowers, separated by small clusters. The young fruit turns whitish, before turning red when ripe. Its length does not exceed two centimeters.
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“Alarm signal”
This discovery shakes the scientific certainties, affirmed with the Guardian botany professor Benedikt Kuhnhäuser, one of the lead authors of the study. “Currently, most botanists focus on the aerial life of plants. This new subterranean palm, along with the recent discovery of the first subterranean pitcher plant, Nepenthes pudica, is a wake-up call for scientists to look beyond the immediately visible and expect the unexpected..”
2,500 species of palm trees are listed in the world. On the island of Borneo, shared between Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia, 300 of them are rooted.
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