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Gnome plant Geotagged,Hemitomes congestum,Spring,United States Click/tap to enlarge PromotedSpecies introCountry intro

Gnome plant

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    comments (7)

  1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
    Ferdy Christant
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    Whoa, what a mysterious organism: "Little is known about the life cycle of the plant due to its rarity, but it probably obtains its nutrients by parasitizing fungi".

    Absolutely bizarre, imagined it to be a fungi, a gorgeous one.     Posted 9 years ago
    1. View morpheme's profile
      morpheme
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      Not quite a fungi - but it probably lives on them. Much like Candy stick - aka - Allotropa virgata (a relative that only grows on matsutake mycelium) it probably cannot grow without a certain type of fungus, but it doesn't look like anyone has really determined if this is absolute or what type of fungus it might be. Other relatives like pinesap and ghost pipe also parasitize fungi that themselves are associated with certain types of trees. It's a complex chain, which I think, is one of the things that makes all of these somewhat rare.

      It looks like this gets mistaken for ground cone and fringed pinesap with some regularity… the Wiki page for fringed pinesap, I'm pretty sure, incorrectly sports a picture of this organism - oops..       Posted 9 years ago
      1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
        Ferdy Christant
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        Very interesting, I did not know some plants parasite on fungi, usually it seems to other way around. Posted 9 years ago
        1. View Flown Kimmerling's profile
          Flown Kimmerling
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          All non-photosynthetic plants (to some degree) depend on/parasitize fungi or other plants for nutrients, right? Posted 7 years ago, modified 7 years ago
          1. View morpheme's profile
            morpheme
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            Indeed - if a plant is truly non-photosynthetic it is reliant on their host plant/fungi for everything.
            there's a good overview on the wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_plant             Posted 7 years ago
            1. View Christine Young's profile
              Christine Young
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              So fascinating! Posted 7 years ago
  3. View Ferdy Christant's profile
    Ferdy Christant
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    Finding "nearby":
    Gnome Plant This specimen was right beside the road and close to eye level. The pink colour stood out from the dark background. A lucky find! Canada,Geotagged,Gnome plant,Hemitomes congestum,Summer
     Posted 9 years ago

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The Gnome plant

''Hemitomes'' is a monotypic genus of plants containing the single species ''Hemitomes congestum'', which is known as gnome plant and cone plant. This rare and unusual plant is native to the west coast of North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in dense, dark forests such as the redwood forests of the region. This is small, fleshy, stemless perennial plant forming lumps in the leaf litter. It is white, yellowish, or reddish-pink in color. Little is known about the life.. more

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Similar species: Ericales
Species identified by morpheme
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By morpheme

All rights reserved
Uploaded Jun 13, 2016. Captured Jun 12, 2016 11:23 in NF-2918, Port Angeles, WA 98363, USA.
country flag of United States of America Explore United States of America 39,925 9,640 8
  • X-E1
  • f/1.0
  • 2s
  • ISO200
  • 50mm

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