Spotted Coralroot

One of my favorite parts of the flora of shady forests are the achlorophyllous plants, such as coralroot (Corallorhyza sp.) and other plants that lack chlorophyll. Since they can't photosynthesize, they borrow nutrients from other organisms.  Coralroot gets nutrients from the soil by parasitizing the fungi in the forest floor.

Coralroot, like skunks, come in two species: spotted and striped (C. maculata and C. striata).   The flowers are borne in a raceme, with several flowers per stem.  Before they open, they look like purple asparagus, about a foot tall, sticking out of the duff.

Coralroot aren't an everyday sight in the woods, but often when you do see them, they'll grow in a dense little patch, each single stem sprouting from an underground coral-like rhizome.  The lack of green leaves cause the flowers to blend in to the leaf litter, but once you spot them, their peachy color and the interesting red and white patterns of the flowers distinguish them.

Coralroot are found in shady conifer forests of North America.  You can easily tell them from C. striata by the spots on the labellum.  In C. striata, all the petals have red and white stripes parallel to the long edge of the petal.  There is one more species, C. mertensiana, which has a striped labellum, too, but the pattern is less vibrant and distinct.

These photos of C. maculata were taken May 4, in the Middle Fork Albion River area, South of Mendocino, Ca.

One of these things is not like the others...

Here it is, folks, evolution in action! This one violet showed off a mutation, or maybe just a rarely expressed trait, of white and yellow splotchy petals. That's how garden varieties are created - one little natural variation amplified by breeding. It's fun to see such a variation in nature, especially in a species that normally sports a multitude of remarkably identical flowers. Just goes to show, even the flowers you see every day can be interesting all over again.

These photos taken on April 16 in Little River, Ca.

More on Milk Maids

While taking pictures of a Trillium at the edge of the woods at my house,I noticed the multitude of Cardamine californica popping up all over the place. They looked like the normal variety, so I thought I ought to take some pics to demonstrate the difference between these and the ones from my other post. Also, an especially purple Cardamine basal leaf caught my eye and wanted its picture taken (above). The heart shaped basal leaf of the milkmaid plant looks totally different from the cauline leaves, which are usually palmately dissected. They are often various shades of green or purple, or both. Below is the whole plant.

So the question is, dear readers, do the individuals in the photos from my other post belong to a subspecies or variety of Cardamine californica? If I had dear readers, I would ask for their input.

The photos above were taken on March 14 in Little River, Ca.

Coltsfoot

This is arctic sweet coltsfoot, or western coltsfoot - Petasites frigidus var. palmatus a farily widespread species in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). These were growing by the same creek from the last entry, alongside the lone cow parsnip. The two species work well together for this purpose since they're superficially similar, but quite different. Though the coltsfoot flower head is umbel-shaped like the cow parsnip, it's technically a raceme. More-over, its flowers are a world apart, as the plant is in the Asteraceae family. So each "flower" is actually an inflorescence in itself - a composite made of teeny tiny flowers, in this case both "ray flowers" and "disk flowers" just like a sunflower or daisy. And when its seeds become mature, they'll blow away in the wind.

This one hasn't opened yet. I love the purplish color of the involucre (the bracts, or phyllaries, enclosing the inflorescence).

Up close, you can see the disk flowers in the center and ray flowers (they look like petals) on the outside. One of these days I'll get a macro lens...the Canon EOS 50D kit lens (28-135mm IS) isn't too hot in the macro department, unfortunately.

Like the cow parsnip, coltsfoot are insect-pollinated, and their flat-toped flower heads make a nice platform for the insects that come to collect nectar.