Indian Pipe
Aug. 17th, 2004 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanUnusual Urban Wildflower
Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is a rare plant to find in the city. It has no chlorophyll, thus it's ghostly pallor. This means that unlike other plants it can't make it's own sugars from sunlight. Instead it exploits the relationship between a fungus and a tree: a "mycorrhizal" relationship, where (to oversimplify) the fungus lives in the roots of the tree. The fungus helps protect the tree's roots, and makes mineral nutrients available, while obtaining sugars from the tree. This is a complex relationship that takes a long time to establish and develop. Many urban trees do not live long enough to form them. Mushrooms produced from mycorrhizal relationships are fairly rare in the city, and one would expect that a plant dependent on these relationships would be even more rare.
This photograph was taken in late July, in Boston's Olmsted Park. Frederick Law Olmsted designed many of Boston's green areas. While his legacy includes unfortunate alien introductions (such as Ailanthus altissima, or Tree-of-Heaven) it also includes the beautiful chain of parks called the Emerald Necklace, where you can find interesting life forms like these flowers.
Cross posted to The Urban Pantheist(![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
urbpan), armchairscience, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ecologists, mycology, paganinthecity, pantheists (sorry about all the xposting!)
Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is a rare plant to find in the city. It has no chlorophyll, thus it's ghostly pallor. This means that unlike other plants it can't make it's own sugars from sunlight. Instead it exploits the relationship between a fungus and a tree: a "mycorrhizal" relationship, where (to oversimplify) the fungus lives in the roots of the tree. The fungus helps protect the tree's roots, and makes mineral nutrients available, while obtaining sugars from the tree. This is a complex relationship that takes a long time to establish and develop. Many urban trees do not live long enough to form them. Mushrooms produced from mycorrhizal relationships are fairly rare in the city, and one would expect that a plant dependent on these relationships would be even more rare.
This photograph was taken in late July, in Boston's Olmsted Park. Frederick Law Olmsted designed many of Boston's green areas. While his legacy includes unfortunate alien introductions (such as Ailanthus altissima, or Tree-of-Heaven) it also includes the beautiful chain of parks called the Emerald Necklace, where you can find interesting life forms like these flowers.
Cross posted to The Urban Pantheist(
urbpan), armchairscience, ecologists, mycology, paganinthecity, pantheists (sorry about all the xposting!)
