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Thismia americana
Also called Thismia
Thismia americana is a tiny, leafless, fully mycoheterotrophic plant that gets its nutrients from fungi in the soil rather than from photosynthesis. It is believed extinct, last seen in 1916 near Lake Calumet in Chicago, so it cannot be grown.
Thismia americana, known as thismia or banded Trinity, was a species of flowering plant that was first discovered in 1912 by Norma Etta Pfeiffer in the wetlands surrounding Chicago's Lake Calumet, and described by her in 1914. The type specimen was found in what was then a wet-mesic sand prairie at 119th Street and Torrence Avenue in what would become the industrial neighborhood of South Deering. The plant has not been seen since 1916, and the ground where it was observed has since been extensively altered by industrial development. The species is believed to be extinct. Several extensive searches have not uncovered any living specimens of the vanished species.
Although occasionally regarded as a hoax, preserved specimens exist. One was located in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands in 2022.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thismia americana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
