Scientists identify 'alien' flowering plant

On Aug 13, 2019, Ya Jidong, a botanist from the Kunming Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his colleagues walked into a patch of wet evergreen, broad-leaved forest in a karst valley in the Laoshan Provincial Nature Reserve in Malipo county, Yunnan province.

Working with the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species at the KIB, they were collecting germplasm materials from wild species, particularly seeds. By chance, they discovered a strange plant.

With a height of barely 4 centimeters above the ground, the tiny plant bore a striking resemblance to an "alien" due to its unique appearance.