The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group, a place where everyone is welcome to note the observations you have made of the natural world around you. Fledglings, insects, blossoms, fish, climate, reptiles and/or amphibians: all are worthy additions to the bucket. Ask questions if you have them and someone here may well have an answer. All we ask is that you let us know where you're located, as close as you're comfortable revealing.
On a recent walk in Fort Townsend State Park (here on the NE corner of the Olympic Peninsula of WA), we found a Hooker's groundcone (
Boschniakia hookeri).
Hooker's groundcone (Boschniakia hookeri)
Hooker's groundcone (also known as Vancouver groundcone) looks like a conifer cone growing out of the ground. It is relatively rare, but is found in my favorite local park. In this photo, you can see its light purple flowers emerging from the overlapping yellow scales. The flowers have turned brown in the older specimen to the left. This is a root-parasitic plant that grows with Salal (Gaultheria shallon) and Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum). It derives nutrition from a connection with their roots. Since a single plant can produce more than one-third of a million seeds, it is surprising that it is so rarely found. However, seeds may not grow for 7 to 12 years, or even decades, after dispersal. It requires the appropriate host plant and an active growth phase can initiate only after the seed receives a chemical signal from a host plant.
After seeing the groundcone, I started scanning the ground for more. I found patches of forest floor covered in Spotted coralroot (Corallorrhiza maculata). It is a native orchid that is a myco-heterotroph which means it lacks chlorophyll and derives its nutrients as a parasite of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil which, in turn, may get their nutrients from other plants. Spotted coralroot grows deep in coniferous forests. I have never seen 10s of them in one place before (not the best photo).
Patch of Spotted coralroot
Here is the closeup of coralroot I posted previously.
Spotted coralroot (Corallorrhiza maculata)
Clusters of Indian pipe (
Monotropa uniflora) are just starting to emerge from the ground. Right now, they look like white bumps on the ground surrounded by the black remains of last year. These are also parasitic on fungi hosts that are specifically connected to the roots of coniferous trees.
Emerging Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora)
The Indian pipes will eventually look like this (before aging to black):
Indian pipe (July 2012)
I also found a Pinesap (
Monotropa hypopithys) which is named appropriately. It "saps" the roots of pines (and other conifers) using mycorrhizal fungi and, thus, is also a myco-heterotroph.
Pinesap (Monotropa hypopitys)
What are you seeing in your woods, skies, waters, and fields?
I won't be around to respond to comments until morning arrives on the west coast. You know what to do until then.