#orchids

[nemfrog]

Pink orchids. R.H. Gore Orchids : 1962. Catalog cover.

Internet Archive

[himekokosu]

Cymbidium

[tragoidi]

[pinkblanc]

Flower & Garden Magazine, August 1968

[headspace-hotel]

Speaking of parasites, all orchids are parasites to some extent. They have to take nutrients from fungi to germinate, because their seeds are literally just specks of baby plant dust with no food for the baby plant.

Many orchids, potentially most or even all of them, get part of their sugars/food from fungus throughout the lifespan, with some orchids not even bothering to photosynthesize.

They use a special mycorrhizal relationship called orchid mycorrhizae to form relationships with their fungi. It is distinguished on the microscope because the orchid mycorrhizal fungus forms a structure shaped like a coil, called a peloton, inside the plant cell.

It's a big mystery why this would evolve and why the fungus doesn't fight back, if orchids feed off the fungus without giving anything in return...

you see, usually with mycorrhizae, the plants are photosynthesizing so they provide some of the sugar/food they get from the sun to the fungus, whereas the fungus provides nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen

but orchids are out here taking food from their fungus partner, so what gives? In mycorrhizal relationships both organisms have to agree, and they can adjust their relationship as they see fit. So how could the orchids be one-sidedly extorting the fungus? Do the orchids do something for the fungus that we don't yet understand?

[corelle-vairel]

Who killed Laura Palmer ?

[stardog-howls]

via pinterest