Indian Pipe

[urbpan]

Unusual 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(urbpan), armchairscience, ecologists, mycology, paganinthecity, pantheists (sorry about all the xposting!)

Comments

[omphalina.livejournal.com]

Monotropa! That's one of my faves, along with the dozen other saprophytes that grow in Oregon forests. What a treat to find one in a park, I bet! Find any good lichens? I'm curious what the flora looks like out there

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Edit--I just read that you're a lichenologist--very exciting!

I'd love to know what that entails (although your profile makes it sound like your working life isn't your happiest time--I understand--I'm basically a zookeeper, and much of the time it's drudgery or frustration instead of the fun you might expect) I guess you're in the right place for lichen. Lichen books I've looked at show the Northwest just dripping with the stuff.

New England has a few species--more nice ones away from the cities, as you'd expect with a pollution-sensitive organism. Our flora, in general, is European. 400+ years of eco-ignorant use of the land has turned New England into a landscape of alien plants. Many are beautiful and/or useful, but native species are pretty overwhelmed. Of course, that's less the case in the (few) wilderness areas.

Some of my favorite native flora includes Skunk Cabbage, Lady's Slipper, Sugar Maple (yum), Blueberries...

Mind if I friend you?

[omphalina.livejournal.com]

please add me! I was going to ask you the same thing. I'm in a rush, about to leave for vacation, but I really enjoyed reading some of your entries. I promise I'll give a better response when I get back

take care

[omphalina.livejournal.com]

Hey I'm back. I love your writing and the premise behind your zine. Super cool. I've always wanted to launch a somewhat related art project--a series of photos documenting ways in which organisms have learned/managed to coexist with humans in an urban setting--(i.e. bird nests tucked away in neon signs, spiders that live above my compost, bryophyte patches on city bridges, lichens on car hoods and power lines, DEER grazing in gardens, etc.) You're inspiring me to *finally* begin photographing what irks out a living in the sidewalk cracks.

I would expect being a zookeeper to be a blast. Wow. Ever get to work with primates?

Some of my PNW favorites: Monotropa, Allotropa, Pedicularis, Drosera, Castilleja, and almost anything in the Pyrolaceae and Crassulaceae. Geez, and the orchids of course. Oh and Arbutus menziesii never gets old.

Can't wait to read the rest of your LJ

Cheers

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy that you are going to pursue your photo project! It sounds just wonderful. I will most likely beg you for some for inclusion in future issues of my zine.

Never worked with primates (yet!). Where I work now has native species only: small mammals, birds of prey, turtles.

I don't know most of the Genera and families you've listed there. The plant Kingdom is mostly mysterious to me as yet. (I find, being an autodidact, that plants are made confusing by the conflicting interests of horticulturalists and botanists.)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Ever get to work with primates?

(Just the one species[H.sapiens], actually, and I find them to be a bit of a drag.)