Microchirita micromusa

Microchirita micromusa is a small gesneriaceae plant from tropical Southeast Asia with a highly unusual anatomy. It grows on shady and moist small slopes in the rainforest, often on limestone.

The large, heart-shaped leaf is one of the two cotyledons. The second cotyledon is reduced and only recognizable as a small appendage. What looks like the leaf stalk is actually the hypocotyl of the plant. Unlike most other plants, the large cotyledon (also called macrocotyledon) is not quickly shed after the first true leaves have formed, but remains and even takes over the main work of photosynthesis. The true leaves, which develop later (often only after the first flowering!), remain much smaller and are ovate to pointed. The small orange to yellow flowers then also appear to emerge from the center of the cotyledon. Both the cotyledon and the true leaves are densely hairy.

This extremely unusual growth pattern results in the plant's equally extraordinary and attractive appearance.