''Lacandonia schismatica'' is a species of

mycoheterotrophic Myco-heterotrophy (from Greek μύκης , "fungus", ἕτερος ', "another", "different" and τροφή ', "nutrition") is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food fro ...

plant in the

Triuridaceae Triuridaceae are a family of tropical and subtropical flowering plants, including nine genera with a total of approximately 55 known species. All members lack chlorophyll and are mycoheterotrophic (obtain food by digesting intracellular fungi, o ...

(although some taxonomists place the genus in a separate family; the Lacandonaceae.). It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Lacandon Jungle The Lacandon Jungle (Spanish: ''Selva Lacandona'') is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Guatemala. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guate ...

in the State of

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

in southern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is known from very few populations and is considered endangered by the researchers who investigate this species. It, and its recently discovered relation Lacandonia braziliana, are the only known flowering plants which in its natural population has a spatial inversion of the reproductive floral whorls (ie stamens and carpels): the 2 to 4 stamens are positioned centrally within the flower, and the 60 to 80 carpels arranged in a ring around them. Perhaps even more remarkable than the reversed positions of male and female parts is the unique mode of pollination. The pollin grain never leaves the anther, but sends the pollin tube backwards through the length of the stamen, across the receptacle and then into the pistil from below. ''Lacandonia schismatica'' is known from several small populations at altitudes around in the

. It grows in shady sites within this rainforest. Gerrit Davidse and Esteban Martínez noted in 1990 how the plants are "extremely localized and highly endangered" due to encroaching habitat conversion to cattle pasture. They also explain that the species is difficult to cultivate and therefore they encourage other scientists to study this unique organism's biology before it can no longer be found in the wild.Márquez-Guzmán, J., Vázquez-Santana, S., Engleman, E. M., Martínez-Mena, A., and Martínez, E. (1993). Pollen development and fertilization in ''Lacandonia schismatica'' (Lacandoniaceae). ''

Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden The ''Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden'' is a long-established major peer-reviewed journal of botany, established in 1914 by the Missouri Botanical Garden, under the directorship of botanist and phycologist, George Thomas Moore, and still p ...

'', 80(4): 891-897.Davidse, G. and Martínez, E. (1990). The chromosome number of ''Lacandonia schismatica'' (Lacandoniaceae). ''Systematic Botany'', 15(4): 635-637.Francisco Vergara-Silva, Silvia Espinosa-Matías, Barbara A. Ambrose, Sonia Vázquez-Santana, Alejandro Martínez-Mena, Judith Márquez-Guzmán, Esteban Martínez, Elliot M. Meyerowitz, and Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla. (2003). Inside-out flowers characteristic of ''Lacandonia schismatica'' evolved at least before its divergence from a closely related taxon, ''Triuris brevistylis''. ''International Journal of Plant Sciences'', 164(3): 345-357.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5231520 Flora of Chiapas Parasitic plants Plants described in 1989 Triuridaceae