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.