Natures wonders: strange plant fungus symbiosis (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, March 04, 2016, 14:28 (3184 days ago) @ David Turell

The plant has lost the ability of photosynthesis, hides from the sun underground, lives off fungi attracted to its roots, from which it gets nutrients, but flowers above ground:-https://www.newscientist.com/article/2078219-new-underground-plant-hides-from-the-sun-and-parasitises-fungi/-"Kenji Suetsugu of Kobe University came across the previously unknown plant in an evergreen forest on the subtropical Japanese island of Yakushima while documenting other fungi-parasitising - mycoheterotrophic - plants in Japan.-"The plant's stem is about 3-9 centimetres long and has between nine and 15 purple star-shaped flowers, which push up above the ground. Suetsugu has named it Sciaphila yakushimensis after the island.-"The plant can't photosynthesise and, like other mycoheterotrophs, steals the carbon it needs from a fungal host. The parasitic plant attracts strands of mycorrhizal fungus into its many hairy roots and then feeds off fungus growing inside the roots.-"Its parasitic lifestyle is an adaptation to the forest understorey, where the sun's rays struggle to penetrate and so photosynthetic plants are rare, says Suetsugu.-"Because it doesn't rely on photosynthesising the sun's light for its energy, it can stay underground, reducing the risk of being eaten by aboveground herbivores. It only pokes through the leaf litter to flower and fruit.-"Vast fungal networks in the forest soil are linked up with plant roots and usually get their carbon from trees, in exchange for water and minerals that their tiny hairs extract from soil.-"But mycoheterotrophs taps into this network and get the carbon from fungi, which got it from other plants to start with.-“'These mycoheterotrophs are extremely rare and could not survive without a flourishing forest, sustained by species-rich underground fungal networks,” says Suetsugu."-Comment: This is a really odd ball relationship. The fungi don't seem to gain anything from it.