Allotropa Virgata, Candystick

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.

Candystick, Allotropa Virgata

Day 244: Without a shadow of doubt, Candystick (Allotropa virgata) is one of the most unusual plants you will find in Pacific Northwestern forests. This mycoheterotrophic species resembles nothing quite so much as a stick of peppermint candy with its red and white stripes, and like many of Mount Rainier National Park's other mycoheterotrophs, it is appearing in abundance this year, and in places where this observer has not previously seen it. These specimens were photographed in the Longmire Stewardship Campground on June 13, 2015. Other clusters of a dozen or more spikes, some a foot tall or more, were noted within the space of approximately one acre.

Mycoheterotroph Season

Day 297: It's the season when those most mysterious mycoheterotrophs are at their best in the lowland forests! These amazing plants would not exist if it were not for their symbiotic relationship with species-specific fungi. Formerly classified as "saprophytes," obligate (full) mycoheterotrophs are incapable of photosynthesis on their own and must parasitize a fungal component. Facultative (partial) mycoheterotrophy occurs when a plant is capable of photosynthesis (as in the case of some orchids), but take a portion of their nutritional requirement by parasitizing a fungus.

Okay, okay...that's probably too much science for many of you, and if you get me started, I'll go on for volumes. I'm fascinated by the mycoheterotrophs, as a couple of strangers discovered today. I was in my famous "naturalist enraptured" pose, down on my knees and elbows, derriere in the "two o'clock" position, trying to hold the camera steady for a long exposure of the Candystick when I heard a young man's voice asking, "Is that a real person?" I had not heard him approaching with his mother, and they must have taken me for one of Mount Rainier National Park's more peculiar exhibits. Before she could answer (and she was taking her time, possibly wondering the same thing), I laughed and said, "Yes, I'm a real person." I think they were somewhat startled even so! They escaped before I could deliver my usual interpretive lesson on mycoheterotrophy, but I am always on the lookout for anyone who may be curious about these intriguing plants.

Candystick (Allotropa virgata) is less common than Pinesap (Monotropa hypopitys), although both specimens were found growing along the stretch of the Wonderland Trail between Longmire and Cougar Rock Campground. The Candystick occurred only in two locations, whereas Pinesap was observed in numerous spots. Coralroot (Corallorrhiza sp.) was also widely seen, but it is at the end of its flowering period and is now forming seed pods.