Bog Candles

Day 273: It's easy to see why Platanthera dilatata earned the nickname "Bog Candles" if you've ever seen one standing in a sun-fleck in dark, moist forest. The flowers are so immaculately white that they seem to shine like a flame in the darkness. The "bog" portion of their common name is quite apt as well, since the plant prefers wet feet. It is a denizen of marshes and ditches where the soil never experiences prolonged periods of dryness. As you might have guessed, it is a member of the Orchid family. There are over 200 species of orchid to be found in the United States, 33 of which belong to the genus Platanthera. Bog Candles can be found throughout the northern states and Canada, with the notable exception of North Dakota where they have not been recorded, according to the USDA. Like most orchids, Platanthera is a facultative mycoheterotroph, which is to say that it is reliant on specific mycorrhizae in the soil to break down nutrients into a form it can uptake. When that fungal component is absent, the plant cannot survive. As I learn more about mycoheterotrophy, it becomes apparent that without fungus, the earth would probably be as dead as Mars.

Corallorhiza Trifida

Day 225: I spent several hours this morning heaving myself over wet logs and crawling around on the forest floor in search of Corallorhiza trifida. I found three stems, two at one location and a single at another. While not the rarest of Mount Rainier National Park's Orchids, C. trifida is far less common than most. If memory serves, the highest annual census my botany partners and I have recorded was just under thirty stems, in a year when all evidence pointed to an abundance of mycorrhizal activity. Trifida has been on the wane for the last few years, but it can remain dormant for prolonged periods until conditions coincide to meet its requirements. Its range of mycoheterotrophic partners is substantially lower than that of the more common Corallorhizas (e.g., maculata and mertensiana) which may be due in part to the decay of vascular plant debris from its associated species. The web is quite complex. Simplified, it can be said that soil, light and humidity conditions must be met in order for particular vascs to take hold, and unless plant debris is present from those species, the specific mycorrhiza cannot thrive. A mycoheterotrophic plant cannot grow without its partner, so all the pieces of the puzzle must fall into place at once. Of course, this project is doomed from the get-go without seed from the orchid and...wait, how did it get there? I feel as if we're discussing the chicken and the egg. Suffice to say that coming home with mud up to my knees, a wealth of bruises and scrapes on my legs and moss stains ground into my skin is a small price to pay for finding three stems of Corallorhiza trifida.