Wonders of an Old-Growth Forest, Part 24: An Intimate Look at a Parasite's Flowers | Warren Woods State Park, Michigan, USA

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Wonders of an Old-Growth Forest, Part 24: An Intimate Look at a Parasite's Flowers | Warren Woods State Park, Michigan, USA
Wonders of an Old-Growth Forest, Part 24: An Intimate Look at a Parasite's Flowers | Warren Woods State Park, Michigan, USA

Taken deep in a stand of old-growth American Beeches (Fagus grandifolia) north of the Galien River footbridge, west of the hiking trail, and south of Warren Woods Road. This is a close-up of the Beech Drops (Epifagus virginiana) plant shown in overall view in Part 22 of this series. And this photo is also a companion to the Part 23 post.

As mentioned in the posts cited above, the flowers of this nonphotosynthetic obligate parasite are zygomorphic, and hence bilaterally rather than radially symmetrical. That's typical of this species' family, the Orobanchaceae.

The flowers lower down on Beech Drops stems tend to be cleistogamous (closed even at full maturity) but reliably self-fertilizing. Here, however, we have some upper blooms that are chasmogamous at anthesis. While they certainly seem to be open for business to visiting pollinators, they reportedly rarely set fruit. My source for this interesting fact is, incidentally, the Flora of North America.

Zygomorphism can take on an wide array of interesting forms that are much more complicated than that of the relatively simple tubular design seen here. For example, the zygomorphic blossoms of orchids are renowned for their amazing shapes, from the flamboyant lady-slipper types (Cypripedium, Paphiopedilum, and Phragmipedium spp.) to those that actually mimic the bodies of tropical spiders (Brassia spp.).

To see the other photos and descriptions of this series, go to my Natural History: Michigan album.


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Taken on: September 17, 2005
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