MARTEN'S CORALROOT AKA PACIFIC CORALROOT
GENESIS NAME: Corallorhixa mertensiana
DISTRIBUTION: WA, ID, MT, CO, OR, CA. CANADA...B.C., AL
SEASON: Blooms May to August
MEDICAL USE: Native American ethnobotanical uses for Corallorhiza include remedies for colds, pneumonia, and skin irritation
POISONOUS: NA
EDIBILITY:NA
FEATURES: Pacific Coralroot has no leaves or roots, and exists on fungal association.
LEAVES: this plant is leafless
FRUITS: NA
DISTRIBUTION: WA, ID, MT, CO, OR, CA. CANADA...B.C., AL
SEASON: Blooms May to August
MEDICAL USE: Native American ethnobotanical uses for Corallorhiza include remedies for colds, pneumonia, and skin irritation
POISONOUS: NA
EDIBILITY:NA
FEATURES: Pacific Coralroot has no leaves or roots, and exists on fungal association.
LEAVES: this plant is leafless
FRUITS: NA
DESCRIPTION:
As with all orchids, illegal collection, attempts at transplantation, and loss of habitat have reduced their numbers. As with many of genera of orchids, coralroot orchids have special requirements that make them extremely difficult to cultivate, thus they will not survive transplantation from the wild. For these reasons, it is illegal to dig or pick orchids on National Forest System lands.
Fungal associationsCorallorrhiza mertensiana is a nonphotosynthetic, myco-heterotroph that receives its nutrition from ectomycorrhizal fungi.[8] The fungi receive mineral nutrients and carbon symbiotically from trees. Corallorrhiza mertensiana parasitizes the carbon from the fungi.[9] Corallorrhiza mertensiana only associates with mutually exclusive subsets of species from the Russulaceae.[10] Corallorrhiza mertensiana never shares fungal species with Corallorrhiza maculata even when intermixed at the same growing site.[4]
Merten's coralroot orchid is a herbaceous, perennial wildflower with a contiguous distribution in the northwestern United States north into British Columbia and adjacent Alberta and then into southeast Alaska, with several disjunct populations in Montana and Wyoming. Merten's coralroot orchid occurs occasionally as a single aboveground flowering scape or as an occurrence with numerous scapes.
Corallorhiza mertensiana (Corallorhiza: corallion, coral and rhiza – root; coralroot and mertensiana, for botanist Carl Franz Mertens) refers to the underground stems, rhizomes, appearing like an ocean coral.
Corallorhiza mertensiana attains a height of 30 to 65 centimeters. The lavender purple to reddish -purple scape emerges from a small coral-shaped rhizome. The leaves are reduced to sheaths surrounding a simple scape (stalk of the inflorescence), pale red to lavender purple to reddish-purple. Occasionally, there are individual flowering scapes or an entire population is creamy yellow because the anthocyanins (flavenoid pigments) which give this orchid its pale red to lavender purple to reddish-purple are absent. The inflorescence is a lax to dense raceme of few to numerous flowers. Flowers range from fully open and spreading to converging but not closed. The flowers are variously colored, usually reddish to purplish or lavender purple, with the petals commonly spotted with purple, the lip is generally white. The fruit is a capsule.
Corallorhiza mertensiana flowers from late spring to summer. The species occurs in a broad array of coniferous to deciduous habitats in humus rich soils.
Fungal associationsCorallorrhiza mertensiana is a nonphotosynthetic, myco-heterotroph that receives its nutrition from ectomycorrhizal fungi.[8] The fungi receive mineral nutrients and carbon symbiotically from trees. Corallorrhiza mertensiana parasitizes the carbon from the fungi.[9] Corallorrhiza mertensiana only associates with mutually exclusive subsets of species from the Russulaceae.[10] Corallorrhiza mertensiana never shares fungal species with Corallorrhiza maculata even when intermixed at the same growing site.[4]
Merten's coralroot orchid is a herbaceous, perennial wildflower with a contiguous distribution in the northwestern United States north into British Columbia and adjacent Alberta and then into southeast Alaska, with several disjunct populations in Montana and Wyoming. Merten's coralroot orchid occurs occasionally as a single aboveground flowering scape or as an occurrence with numerous scapes.
Corallorhiza mertensiana (Corallorhiza: corallion, coral and rhiza – root; coralroot and mertensiana, for botanist Carl Franz Mertens) refers to the underground stems, rhizomes, appearing like an ocean coral.
Corallorhiza mertensiana attains a height of 30 to 65 centimeters. The lavender purple to reddish -purple scape emerges from a small coral-shaped rhizome. The leaves are reduced to sheaths surrounding a simple scape (stalk of the inflorescence), pale red to lavender purple to reddish-purple. Occasionally, there are individual flowering scapes or an entire population is creamy yellow because the anthocyanins (flavenoid pigments) which give this orchid its pale red to lavender purple to reddish-purple are absent. The inflorescence is a lax to dense raceme of few to numerous flowers. Flowers range from fully open and spreading to converging but not closed. The flowers are variously colored, usually reddish to purplish or lavender purple, with the petals commonly spotted with purple, the lip is generally white. The fruit is a capsule.
Corallorhiza mertensiana flowers from late spring to summer. The species occurs in a broad array of coniferous to deciduous habitats in humus rich soils.