In the Baishanzu National Park in Lishui, East China's Zhejiang province, botanists made a striking discovery of a plant with delicate purple-red flowers. The plant was later identified as the epiphytic Yoania japonica, an orchid species.

In China, the orchid plant is known to be found in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi provinces, as well as central Taiwan, with records existing only in Lishui's Baishanzu and Jiulong Mountain nature reserves in Zhejiang.

Yoania japonica features fleshy stems in a light pink hue, scale-like sheaths, and purple-red flowers with a boat-shaped lip petal and a protruding pouch-like spur. It blooms from May to July.

Yoania japonica, a rare orchid species, features purple-red flowers. [Photo/Lin En]

Thriving in lower valley forests above 1000 meters, the plant has a narrow distribution and requires stringent growth conditions. Due to its extreme rarity and elusive nature, finding Yoania japonica is a challenge.

Listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and classified as an endangered species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, this epiphytic orchid plant relies entirely on a symbiotic relationship with specific fungi for sustenance.