Thismia americana

Thismia americana, known as thismia or banded Trinity was a species of flowering plant that was first discovered in 1912 by Norma Etta Pfeiffer in the wetlands surrounding Chicago's Lake Calumet, and described by her in 1914. The type specimen was found in what was then a wet-mesic sand prairie at 119th Street and Torrence Avenue in what would become the industrial neighborhood of South Deering. The plant has not been seen since 1916, and the ground where it was observed has since been extensively altered by industrial development. The species is believed to be extinct. Several extensive searches have not uncovered any living specimens of the vanished species. Although occasionally regarded as a hoax, preserved specimens exist. One was located in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands in 2022. In the 1980s, one of Pfeiffer's specimens had been sent to the Utrecht herbarium, but it went missing after the collection moved to a new site in 2006. This was located when staff u......read more on Wikipedia.