Mycoheterotroph Fix

Day 216: For me, the most painful part of voluntary isolation is not being able to go into the woods as much as I'd like, especially as the spring plants are emerging. However, I have been getting my botany fix during my morning walk, and on occasion, it has borne fruit which in turn led to some interesting email conversations with Arnie. One centered around the presence of Corallorhiza maculata at an unusual site: How did it get there? How is it managing to survive? As you may recall from previous posts, the Corallorhizas are mycoheterotrophs. More specifically, C. maculata (Spotted Coralroot) is an obligate mycoheterotroph. Unlike C. trifida, it lacks any trace of chlorophyll, and therefore depends entirely on soil mycorrhizae to break down nutrients into a form it can utilize. One would hardly expect it to pop up in a developed area only a few feet from pavement, and yet that's where I found eight or nine stems. Three or four others can be found in the surrounding forest, but that handful on the parking strip bother me, presenting a botanical puzzle I will never solve. Arnie and I have spent hours in discussion of the relationship between the rarer mycoheterotrophs and specific soil types which exist only in isolated pockets, and while C. maculata is not particularly rare, it does have fairly specific requirements for both soil and mycorrhizal partner. Further, the mycorrhizal components have requirements of their own. Some only grow where certain plant species are present. We refer to this as a species' "plant associations," and as good botanists, we use this knowledge as a tool to help us pinpoint where rare species may potentially occur. How, then, did dear little maculata pop up in a parking space which at some previous point had been scraped flat by a bulldozer? Yes, I'm getting my botany fix even on the short walks I take every morning, always the observer, always open to the questions the forest poses.