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.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Pinesap, Monotropa Hypopitys
Day 238: If you put forth the hypothesis that this is hypopitys, you'd be right, but you'd probably never get your tongue unwound. For once, you're safer if you call it by its common name, Pinesap, another of those marvelous mycoheterotrophs and fairly common in Mount Rainier National Park. Its cousin Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is white, and occurs far less frequently in our forests. Formerly referred to as "saprophytes" (a misnomer you will still see in field guides), the Monotropas are in fact one half of a symbiotic relationship with a fungus. This specimen was observed along Westside Road along with an abundance of other mycoheterotrophic species, and in that respect, I do have a hypothesis: that our mild winter has allowed the mycorrhizae associated with these curious plants to proliferate. That's why we're seeing so many of them this summer.
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