Perhaps a bit of a stretch for this WC, but the images of plants growing from lava put me on to this shot of a snow plant. These plants are a harbinger of spring in the Sierra Nevada and are often the first new plants to appear when the heavy mantle of snow melts, growing from a bed of forest litter.
Snow plant is the unlikely relation of such shrubs as manzanita, madroño, laurel, and azalea. The plant has no chlorophyll; it derives nutrition from fungi underneath the soil, and for this reason the plant is called "mycotrophic". These fungi are the mycorrhizae ("fungus-roots") of conifers. Many conifers (among other plants) require these fungi to live normally.
Nature does indeed abide through the snow plant.
Comments
7 commentsThis is one cool plant. I like the red color against the grays and browns of the substrate. I think that this image fits in with the WC as it describes a rebirth or sprouting from barren earth..........................Jim
Albert Darmo
Canada
Unlike your crimson snow plant, a common mycotrophic flowering plant in my area -- the Indian pipe -- is so ghostly drab that it is often called a fungus.
Albert Darmo
Canada