In 1862, when Charles Darwin was sent a specimen of orchid from Madagascar with its incredible nectar tube measuring a full 30 centimetres long, he exclaimed in a letter to a friend: 'Good heavens, what insect can suck it!'

Scientists and photographers captured footage that upends what we know about the famed, endangered flower.

Deep in remote Florida swamps, a team of researchers and photographers have made a new discovery that upends what we thought we knew about the ghost orchid, one of the world's most iconic flowers, and how it reproduces. These rare, charming orchids were long thought to be pollinated by a single insect: the giant sphinx moth.

Dendrophylax 1864 den-droe-FYE-lax (click on the name to hear it spoken) Tribe: Vandeae Subtribe: Angraecinae One of those mysterious, LEAFLESS ORCHIDS, Dendrophylax is closely related to the other leafless, Neotropical orchids, Campylocentrum , and Harrisella (considered by the World Monocot Checklist to be synonymous with Dendrophylax ). 

For a few weeks each spring, a lone guard monitors the moors of northern England. This warden pitches a tent in a remote field to watch over a prize so rare that collectors have been known to break laws, trek into deep jungles, and risk capture by guerillas in its pursuit.