Pholisma sonorae , usually known every bit sand nutrient , is 1 of the virtually bizarre wildflowers of North America. Growing out of sand dunes , the bloom has a fleshy stalk that extends ii meters below the surface together with emerging higher upwards every bit a small-scale rounded or ovate form. If plenty sand is blown away , the transcend of the stalk may teach exposed together with the bloom appears somewhat similar a mushroom. During early on throttle , the circular caput bears small-scale centimeter-wide flowers which are pinkish to regal inwards colouring alongside white margins.
Pholisma sonorae lacks chlorophyll. To last it attaches to the roots of diverse desert shrubs to obtain nutrients. Incredibly , the host plants create non seem to live depleted past times Pholisma infestation , together with only about Pholisma plants weigh to a greater extent than than their host plants.
Photo credit: plants.usda.gov
It’s remarkable that the seedlings of these odd source parasites are fifty-fifty able to notice the host source buried deep inwards the sand. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 closely related species (Pholisma arenarium) , which present similar parasitic demeanour , does this past times sending out "pilot roots" ii feet below the surface of the sand. When they achieve the vicinity of a host shrub , the airplane pilot roots post out exceptional "haustorial roots" which connect together with penetrate the host root. The haustorial connector absorbs carbohydrates together with amino acids manufactured past times the photosynthetic host shrub. The flora may live assisted past times other factors such continually shifting sand dunes that assist the seeds to go farther downwardly into the sand , or they may live carried past times harvester ants together with past times rodents that burrow into the dunes nether host shrubs.
Pholisma sonorae is flora inwards exclusively a few locations inwards the Algodones Dunes of southeastern California together with following Arizona , together with inwards the sand dunes of El Gran Desierto inwards Sonora , Mexico. The native American tribes used to swallow their fleshy stalk , either raw or roasted over a campfire.
Photo credit: USFWS/Flickr
Photo credit: botany.org
Photo credit: plants.usda.gov
Photo credit: plants.usda.gov
Sources: Wikipedia / waynesword.palomar.edu / www.centerforplantconservation.org