A crop of delicate white periscopes, each just a few centimetres tall, peek above the leaf litter in a Malaysian rainforest. They may resemble mushrooms, but they are actually the flowers of a parasitic plant species that is totally new to science.

Fairy lanterns ( Thismia ) are mysterious plants that only briefly emerge from underground as tiny, intricate flowers. Lacking the chlorophyll that helps plants photosynthesise to generate energy , they instead steal nutrients from fungi. Many species have disappeared from human eyes shortly after being discovered, sometimes never …