HYDNOPHYTUM TERRESTRIS

This member of the Rubiaceae family was given this name by Camilla Rose Huxley and Matthew H. P. Jebb in 2019. It is found on Mount Michael outside Lufa in central Papua New Guinea, growing as an epiphyte or terrestrial, buried in leaf litter, with lots of water and some sun. The caudex can grow to 30 centimetres in diameter, the entire plant to 100 centimetres in height. The flowers are white. The genera name after Greek hydnon meaning 'tuber' and phyton meaning 'plant', after the swollen branches. The species means 'growing along', or 'lying on the ground' which it does.