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Biologists thought Disa forficaria orchids went extinct (tuyệt chủng) twice. Once in 2018, when a single specimen was found after 52 years without a sighting, and again in 2019 when that one orchid seemingly disappeared. There have only been 11 plants ever found in the last 200 years.

But in 2020, when researchers in South Africa were conducting a field experiment at the last known location of the mysterious flower, three male longhorn beetles showed up carrying D. forficaria pollen. That means there must still be at least one orchid still blossoming—we just can’t find it.

In the brief window in which the flower was in human possession, biologists leapt at the chance to study how it attracts pollinators (làm thụ phấn). So, over eight days in March 2016 and another four days in March 2018, researchers observed how Chorothyse hessei beetles—the only insect spotted visiting the orchid—behaved around the flowers. They published their results in Current Biology.

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