Deep in the forests of Southeast Asia, Pankaj Kumar kept careful watch over 23 small, wild plants in 2012. He returned to them again and again, waiting for them to bloom. They were orchids, he was certain — but without blooms, their species remained a mystery.
He waited patiently, hoping for the day they would reveal their identity. Days stretched into weeks, then months. Ten months passed before a tiny white petal — smaller than a fingernail — finally revealed itself in August 2013. Kumar, an expert on Asian orchids, was almost certain it was an unidentified species. At the faintest touch, the fragile bloom slipped from its stem. And with it came a heartbreaking realization: to give this orchid a name, he would have to dissect the very flower he waited so long to see.
Though the government gave him permission to collect a sample, he worried the plant would shrivel before he could reach the bottom of the mountain. With a rainstorm moving in, and the water level rising from a nearby stream, he got to work, there on the forest floor. In the pouring rain and with a camera around his neck, he documented as much as he could. Then, preparing for the journey out of the forest, he carefully selected a single specimen to take with him. He kept watch over it for three years before handing it over to a garden for safekeeping. Despite Kumar's warnings not to touch the plant or uproot it, the handler cut it into three parts. It died. When Kumar found out, it brought the seasoned botanist to tears, knowing the specimen was lost forever.
