Pterospora andromedea
Jul. 2nd, 2005 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakObservations by Mishalak
When I was a child I never actually saw pinedrops in bloom. I always came upon their mysterious dry stems in the forest, sometimes laden with seeds. They always seem to come again to the same place, often arising from exact same spot where dry stems stood before. Observing where they liked to grow I would spread the seed across areas thick with pine needles and duff. I hope that I might have helped to start a new colony by what I did; I certainly did see one later on coming up from an area where I spread them. But it could have been there already.
Back then I thought they were parasites, living off tree roots. But I liked them anyway and thought the trees could stand to lose a little sap to such a flower. But I apparently was wrong and they are a "myco-heterotroph" that lives off the funguses decomposing the duff on the forest floor.
The specimens I've most recently observed are coming up in the bottom of a dry wash, but from observing their dry stems in the past they are equally happy in this area on slightly sloping ground with no obvious source of surface water. I would need to observe a lot more, but I suspect that in Colorado's black forest they may grow in areas intermittently inundated with water with no ill effect due to the due to the well drained sandy soil. I've read reports from the east that they grow mostly on steep slopes; this may be more critical in environments with heavy rainfall. Also it should be noted that the hills in this area are not dissimilar to large sand dunes that have stopped moving due to higher rainfall encouraging vegetation to hold them in place.
When I was a child I never actually saw pinedrops in bloom. I always came upon their mysterious dry stems in the forest, sometimes laden with seeds. They always seem to come again to the same place, often arising from exact same spot where dry stems stood before. Observing where they liked to grow I would spread the seed across areas thick with pine needles and duff. I hope that I might have helped to start a new colony by what I did; I certainly did see one later on coming up from an area where I spread them. But it could have been there already.
Back then I thought they were parasites, living off tree roots. But I liked them anyway and thought the trees could stand to lose a little sap to such a flower. But I apparently was wrong and they are a "myco-heterotroph" that lives off the funguses decomposing the duff on the forest floor.
The specimens I've most recently observed are coming up in the bottom of a dry wash, but from observing their dry stems in the past they are equally happy in this area on slightly sloping ground with no obvious source of surface water. I would need to observe a lot more, but I suspect that in Colorado's black forest they may grow in areas intermittently inundated with water with no ill effect due to the due to the well drained sandy soil. I've read reports from the east that they grow mostly on steep slopes; this may be more critical in environments with heavy rainfall. Also it should be noted that the hills in this area are not dissimilar to large sand dunes that have stopped moving due to higher rainfall encouraging vegetation to hold them in place.