Scientists have discovered a new plant species in the shade of Asian forests that has abandoned photosynthesis. According to Science alert, the leaves of these plants are missing the green color as they have opted for an alternative source of energy..

They take it from fungi in a process known as symbiotic mycorrhiza.. It connects most of the forest floor plants into an extensive network..

Scientists previously thought that Monotropastrum humile, which is widely distributed in East and Southeast Asia from the Himalayas to Japan, is the only plant species that receives its nutrients from fungi.. Now they have found a plant that can be considered a separate species.. They called it Monotropastrum kirishimense.

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Wide forest webs - networks of fungi and plant roots that span entire forests - act as highways for the delivery of nutrients, as well as wires for transmitting information between plants using electrical and chemical signals.. These links help to strengthen the forest as a whole, distributing resources from nutrient-rich parts of the network to poor ones.. They also allow plants to warn each other of predators and even help protect them from drought..

In response, plants “pay” the fungi with nutrients, giving up part of the hydrocarbons that are obtained through photosynthesis.. But Monotropastrum act differently: instead of "

The most pronounced distinguishing feature of the new species is its pink petals and sepals.. But there are others. Unlike M. humile, the roots of a newly discovered plant hardly protrude from the soil. They are also more closely related to a single lineage of mycorrhiza Russula, whereas M. humile prefers a completely different variety of mushrooms.

Despite the fact that related species grow next to each other, their flowering period does not coincide..

humile blooms 40 days later than the detected species. The researchers believe that this is necessary so that the common pollinator of plants, the bumblebee Bombus diversus, could not accidentally drag pollen from one species to another and thereby the plant prevents possible hybridization..

Earlier, Turkish scientists announced that they were able to discover silphium, a plant that was considered lost for more than 2000 years.. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered it "