New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam

New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
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New Snake, Orchid, More Found in Vietnam
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In 2005 and 2006 a series of WWF surveys found five new species of orchid in Vietnam's Green Corridor, including this rare leafless orchid called Gastrodia theana.

Unlike most flowering plants, leafless orchids don't use the green pigment chlorophyll to turn sunlight into energy. Instead the plants feed on nutrients from decaying matter on the forest floor, like many species of fungi.

The newly described orchid's salmon-pink, fleshy flowers bloom between March and April.

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—Photograph courtesy ) Leonid Averyanov/WWF Greater Mekong
 

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