This is the world's smallest species of orchid. It's 2.1 millimetres wide and its transparent petals are just one cell thick. 

It was found hidden in the roots of a larger plant in the Cerro Candelaria nature reserve in the eastern Andes in Ecuador by botanist Lou Jost. 

It belongs to the genus Platystelewhich contains 95 species of orchid, most of which are miniature. 

Jost has a knack for finding orchids: in the past decade, he has discovered 60 that were unknown to science, reports British newspaper The Independent. 

One orchid discovered by Jost in Ecuador was so small that, "it looked like a piece of dirt at first", he says. According to Dr Calaway H. Dodson, more than 3,700 orchid species reside in Ecuador. 

(Image: Lou Jost)