"the little autumn coralroot orchid, Chorallorhiza[Corallorhizha]
odontorhiza...
I hadn't seen one in years...
Walking along a forest trail in an earth sanctuary west of Burlington... I
was lucky to glance down and spot one on the edge of the path.
... six-inch-high, solitary leafless stem...
Several hundred feet farther along, I paused to examine a fallen former
giant of the forest reduced by years of decay to a linear hump of rich
organic matter at the trail's edge.
I was surprised to find a cluster of four coralroots.
Looking more closely along the entire length, I discovered several more
clusters of four-to-eight-inch-high orchid stems and a few more single ones
scattered about in the adjacent forest litter.
...
a suggestion for any of you who may go out in search of this little orchid:
Look for fallen trees in advanced stages of decay.
These rotting logs seem to provide suitable sites for germination of the
talcum powder-like seeds of these small terrestrial orchids.
Your only opportunity to find this orchid is now, the few weeks it flowers
and develops seed in the early fall.
This leafless orchid is saprophytic, which means it derives nutrients from
decaying organic matter.
... description in Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia by Alan
Weakley... :
"The mycotrophic nature of Corallorhiza is well established, but the exact
means of the transfer of nutrients from the fungal hyphae to the orchid is
not yet understood."
...
Those orchid roots, shaped somewhat like sea coral, thus coralroot, are
apparently inclined to move toward the mycorrhizae, that
not-fully-understood association between fungal mycelium, hyphae and the
roots of specific plants...
...
Another observation in Weakley's Flora is that some of the plants have
cleistogamous, closed, flowers and other plants have chasmogamous, open,
flowers.
...
those flowers are only an eighth-inch long...
I found one reference stating that open and closed flowers occur on
separate plants.
... I observed open and closed flowers on some of the same stems...
Having recently seen some of these really obscure coralroot orchids, I'm
going out several times during the next couple of weeks in search for more."
URL :
http://www.carrborocitizen.com/main/2008/10/02/flora-a-really-obscure-wildflower/
photo : [caption : "close-up look... one-eighth-inch flowers of coralroot"]
http://www.carrborocitizen.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/flora1coral.jpg
*************
Regards,
VB
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