Ghost Orchid Rediscovered

A leafless orchid last recorded in India in 1850 has been found again in Meghalaya’s Khasi Hills after a 175-year gap. (link.springer.com) The species is *Chamaegastrodia vaginata*, a mycoheterotrophic orchid, which means it does not make food from sunlight and instead depends on fungi in the soil. Researchers from the Botanical Survey of India’s Eastern Regional Centre in Shillong reported the rediscovery in a paper published online on January 19, 2026, in *Vegetos*. (link.springer.com) The team — Yalatoor Mahesh, Rikertre Lytan, and Ramalingam Kottaimuthu — found the plant during field surveys under a project on parasitic angiosperms in Meghalaya. To confirm the identification, they checked historical botanical literature and compared the specimen with material preserved at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (nenow.in) (themeghalayanexpress.com) The orchid is called a “ghost orchid” because it is leafless, pale, and easy to miss on the forest floor. Kew lists it as a holomycotrophic rhizomatous geophyte, a technical way of saying it lives underground for much of its life and relies fully on fungal partners for nutrition. (thecooldown.com) (powo.science.kew.org) The rediscovery also narrowed the picture of how precarious the population is. Local reports on the survey said fewer than 25 mature plants were seen, all within an area of less than 20 square metres near Upper Shillong. (krctimes.com) That tiny footprint matters because the species depends on intact subtropical habitat and underground fungal networks that can be disrupted by even small changes in soil or forest cover. The Meghalayan Express reported the find from Lawsohtun, Upper Shillong, an area where the team said habitat protection will shape whether the orchid persists. (powo.science.kew.org) (themeghalayanexpress.com) The plant’s taxonomic history also helps explain why it vanished from view for so long. It was first described under the name *Aphyllorchis vaginata* and is now accepted by Kew and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility as *Chamaegastrodia vaginata*. (powo.science.kew.org) (gbif.org) Kew’s database lists the species’ native range as the eastern Himalaya to south-central China, including Assam, but the Meghalaya record restores a plant that had dropped out of the state’s modern botanical record for generations. Local coverage called it the oldest documented plant rediscovery in Meghalaya. (powo.science.kew.org) (hubnetwork.in) For botanists, the find is both a new specimen and a warning from a very small patch of ground. After 175 years without a confirmed record in the Khasi Hills, the orchid is visible again, but only barely. (link.springer.com) (krctimes.com)