SCIENCE MALAYSIA SPECIAL : SHY AND RARE [ 2 ]

'' SO PRETTY and unique,'' she remembered thinking. '' Then came : What is this ? ' "

The photos found their way to Siti Munirah, a botanist with Forest Research Institute Malaysia, who immediately knew she was looking at an undiscovered species. 

Ms. Tan, Ms. Siti Munirah and colleagues described the plant in a study published in the journal PhytoKeys.

After the discovery beside a stream in Sungai Congkak Recreational Forest, the researchers conducted several surveys nearby.

They have found only 20 individuals to date, including some that lived in tree hollows. Given the plant's rarity and apparently tiny range, it should be considered critically endangered, Ms. Siti Munirah said.

The fairy lantern is a mycoheterotroph, the general term for a plant that parasitizes fungi.

There are only around 560 known species of mycoheterotrophs worldwide, such as waxy white ghost pipes, said Vincent Merckx, a biologist in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the paper.

The fairy lanterns most notable feature is its ''extraordinarily wide, '' umbrella - shaped dome atop the flower, known as a mitre, said Michal Sochor, a botanist in the Czech Republic.

This shape may help keep detritus or rainwater out of the flower's internal structure, said Dr. Sochor, who was not involved in the study.

The function of the plant's tentacle-like extensions is unknown, but they emit chemicals to signal the presence of the flower as it pokes up through leaf litter, he said.

The World Students Society thanks Douglas Main.