A flower once thought to be extinct has been found in China. The rare parasitic plant was last recorded in the 1980s in deep southern part of Yunnan. 

However, scientists from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden found two photos on a chat messaging app WeChat profile of a local tourist guide early this month of what seems to be the extinct parasitic plant. The images showed a oddly shaped flowers resembling a red mushroom with no roots and leaves.

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Researchers recognized that the flowers could be rafflesiaceae, which has not been found in China for nearly 30 years. The scientists performed a field investigation and discovered the plants themselves, blooming at the heart of the rainforest.

Rafflesiaceae was coined after British statesman Sir. Thomas Stamford Raffles who found and gathered the specimen in his expedition to Sumatra in 1818. The family of Rafflesiaceae is a rare parasitic plant known to have the largest flower in the world. For instance, its specie Rafflesia arnoldii can grow as large as over 100 centimeters in diameter and weigh as much as 10 kilograms. It mostly blooms in the tropical forests of east and Southeast Asia and is also distinctly known for its carcasses-like scent thus it is also dubbed as "corpse flowers" or "meat flower." The plant does not have stems, roots, leaves or any photosynthetic tissue of its kind. It is an endoparasite as it entirely depends on other plants for sources of water and nutrients. 

However, the flowers found in Xishuangbanna were only about 10 to 12 centimeters in width, not as large as those found in other places.

As for now, plant classification at the botanical garden specialist Tan Yunhong revealed that they are performing DNA tests on the cell samples obtained from the flowers to determine if what they found were is just a relative of rafflesiaceae or an entirely new specie. However, they admitted that the process could be difficult as the rafflesiaceae most of the time shares its genes with host plants, a process called horizontal gene transfer.

"We will only use the most stable genes to analyze the specimens' genetic relationship with other parasitic plants, but we will not know how horizontal gene transfer will influence the result until we finish gene sequencing and start the analysis," Tan explained.

Despite the outcome, the research will shed light on the little known rafflesiaceae. Liu Guangyu, another researcher at the botanical garden, claims that they are performing the study as quickly as possible, considering the fact that how the that plant appeared, grew and fertilized were not known in the first place, and after quite some time, it might disappear again.

The International Union for Conservation of Nation has declared all known rafflesiaceae species as endangered.

TagsXishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, china, largest flower, Rafflesiaceae, botanical garden, corpse flower, meat flower