Rhizanthes lowii
Rhizanthes lowii is a species of parasitic flowering plant without leaves, stems, roots, or photosynthetic tissue. It grows on the roots of the Tetrastigma vine. It includes the specimens with the largest measured flowers in Rhizanthes, from 25 to 43 cm (10 to 17 inches) across. The flowers are endothermic, not only producing their own heat, but they also have the rare ability to regulate their own temperature. Taxonomy Rhizanthes lowii was originally described by Odoardo Beccari as Brugmansia lowii in 1868, being the second of such Brugmansia species (The name Brugmansia is now used for a Solanaceous genus related to Datura). Bénédict Pierre Georges Hochreutiner recombined the taxon in 1930 to a new genus, Mycetanthe, but Hermann Harms recombined the taxon again in 1934, to give it its present name. Distribution It was first collected on a little islet (in a river?) near the Malaysian town of Limbang, almost at the border of Brunei. Originally, the species was believed to be present in the tropical forests of Borneo, Sumatra, southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia, but after the 2000 revision of the genus Rhizanthes, the specimens collected in Sumatra, Thailand and Malaysia were reinterpreted as two new, different species, on