Japanese scientists have discovered a new species of plant, which neither photosynthesizes nor blooms.

They named this plant Gastrodia kuroshimensis, after the Japanese island of Kuroshima, where scientist Kenji Suetsugu found this plant, according to Gazeta.ru news site of Russia.

Mycoheterotrophic plants, which do not photosynthesize and get the necessary nutrients from host fungi, have caught the attention of botanists and mycologists.  

These plants are small in size, and they are very rare.

In April 2016, during his research trip in the lowland forests in Kuroshima, Suetsugu came across approximately one hundred individuals of an unfamiliar mycoheterotrophic species. He collected a specimen, carried out a detailed examination of the plant’s morphological characteristics, and found that it was indeed a new species that does not bloom and self-pollinates within closed buds.