CHICAGO — Chicago's Loch Ness Monster is a plant no bigger than a pinky fingernail that hasn't been seen in the wild in almost 100 years.
Nature treasure hunters occasionally continue to search city grounds for the Thismia Americana, a tiny flowering plant that was last located alive at 119th Street and Torrence Avenue in 1916. It now only exists as specimens in liquid-filled jars, but some continue to hold out hope it remains in soil on Chicago's South and Southeast sides.
"It really could still be there, but where, I don't know," said Albany Park resident Robb Telfer, Calumet Outreach Coordinator at the Field Museum. "If it was found, it would be like Elvis Presley showing up one day and proving he wasn't dead."
Chicago is the only place Thismia Americana has ever been discovered. In 1912, University of Chicago graduate student Norma Pfeiffer first saw the Thismia in a low, wet prairie on the Southeast Side near Torrence Avenue. She collected the plants for the next few years, but no one, including Pfeiffer, ever saw Thismia in the wild again after 1916.
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In the decades since, scientists and plant enthusiasts alike have tried to find any sign of Thismia Americana. None have been successful. The ideal time to even have a chance to see it in the wild ends in mid-September.
About 20 of the samples from 1912-16 can be found in the Field Museum's collection, Telfer said.
The plant continues to be shrouded in mystery for many reasons, Telfer said. First is its extremely small size; the fact Pfeiffer saw one in the first place is a "miracle," Telfer said. No one knows why Thismia Americana was in Chicago in the first place; its closest relatives are located in New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania.
The plant itself was also strange. It didn't produce chlorophyll and didn't use photosynthesis. It also spent most of the year underground, feeding on fungi that grew on its roots. The entire plant was white, almost ghost-like, and featured tiny translucent blue green flowers.
Telfer said if anyone were to discover a Thismia Americana in the wild, it would bring "instant plant nerd fame."
"If you are a plant nerd, you know about Thismia, and if you were to discover it, you would be plant-nerd famous," he said. "It would be like winning a famous Scrabble tournament. No one would know who you are, but the Scrabble people would."
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