| Thismia americana | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| Order: | Dioscoreales |
| Family: | Burmanniaceae |
| Genus: | Thismia |
| Species: | T. americana |
| Binomial name | |
| Thismia americana N.E.Pfeiffer |
|
Thismia americana was a species of flowering plant that was described and published as living in wetlands surrounding Chicago's Lake Calumet in the 1910s. 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.[1] An extensive volunteer search, conducted in August 2011 on the far south side of Chicago, did not uncover any specimens of the vanished species.[2]
Thismia americana drew interest from botanists because of its extremely specialized ecological niche. T. americana lacked chlorophyll. Instead of converting solar energy, the flowering plant was a mycoheterotroph, utilizing local fungi of the southern Lake Michigan wetlands for its nourishment. The plant enjoyed a short, shy life cycle above ground; in July, its roots would sprout a tiny flowering head, which produced a white flower the size of a jewelry bead.[1]
T. americana was published by University of Chicago botanical PhD. candidate Norma Pfeiffer, who became the first and only scientist to observe and describe the species. By examining the rare plant's morphology, Pfeiffer discovered that it was a Thismia, a member of a plant genus that otherwise exists only in the Southern Hemisphere. No one knows how this isolated population survived in North America until historical times.[1]