365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Penny Perspectives - Spotted Coralroot
Day 226: Arguably the showiest of the Park's four known Coralroot species, Corallorhiza maculata when seen from above is easy to gloss over as "a little brown plant." It's only when you take a closer look that the freckled face of this Orchid species reveals itself in all its speckled beauty. Another mycoheterotrophic species, C. maculata lacks chlorophyll and therefore relies on a mycorrhizal component's assistance in order to draw nutrients from the soil. Maculata can be quite common where it occurs, as it was where I found these near Westside Road, but since many mycoheterotrophs exist only in symbiosis with specific fungal species, its occurrence is likely to be patchy.
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I love and enjoy the Penny Perspectives. Thank you. Beauty I would never have seen.
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