Day 247: Arguably the showiest of Mount Rainier National Park's mycoheterotrophic species, Allotropa virgata will make any hiker stop in their tracks for a photo. The "canes" may rise as much as 20 inches above the forest floor, and although they're usually seen as single specimens, they do form colonies. Like other obligate mycoheterotrophs, Allotropa virgata is entirely dependent on a mycorrhizal component (Tricholoma magnivelare) which facilitates the plant's uptake of nutrients from the soil. Where the fungus is absent, Candystick will not occur.
In Nature, everything holds hands, a point which becomes more obvious when you study any tightly linked relationship like mycoheterotrophy. As I learn more about these species, a question arises in my mind about the harvesting of edible wild mushrooms. Like any Hobbit worth the name, I do enjoy a meal of chanterelles, morels or boletes, and if I had been possessed of the skills necessary to make a 105% identification of Tricholoma magnivelare, I'd probably have picked the "American matsutake" as well. Fortunately, those skills are not in my repertoire, or I might have been murdering dozens or hundreds of Candysticks by my gluttony. It's a sobering thought.
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