User:Ssanchez31/Corallorhiza wisteriana

Corallorhiza wisteriana

Description of Species:

Corallorhiza wisteriana is commonly known as spring coralroot, arousing coralroot, and Wister’s coralroot. This coralroot species is widespread and ranges through Mexico, and parts of the United States including the Rocky Mountains, Appalachians, Southeast, Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.

C. wisteriana is known to be partially or fully mycoheterotrophic meaning that it can derive part or all of its nutrients from its fungal symbiont. C. wisteriana’s main fungal symbiont was found to be within the family of Russulacae, however, it should be noted that some are also associated with the family Thelephoracae (Taylor 1997). C. wisteriana also tends to have high specificity with one fungal symbiont and is known to not associate with more than one fungal symbiont (Freudenstein & Barrett, 2014). In addition (Freudenstein & Barrett, 2014) also found that these two distinct polymorphisms within the fungal communities associated which led them to believe that C. wisteriana has shown two host shifts.

Flowers:

The flowers of C. wisteriana consist of slender pedicels, sepals,

and petals. Its sepals are colored tan, purple, and yellow with

green more toward the base. The lip is colored white and

spotted with reddish to purple dots, however some can appear

fully white.

Corallorhiza wisterianaPhoto taken by: Dr. Donald Lee Taylor

Taxonomy:

Kingdom:

Plantae

Phylum:

Anthophyta

Class:

Monocotyledoneae

Order:

Orchidales

Family:

Orchidaceae

Genus:

Corallorhiza

Corallorhiza wisterianaPhoto taken by: Dr. Donald Lee Taylor

Distribution and Habitat:

C. wisteriana is found in the eastern part of the United States ranging from Pennsylvania, down south to Florida and west through Arizona. They grow at elevations that are between 5,500-9,800ft and are usually on flat forest floors or steep hillsides, but also grow in deep duff and among rocks. They bloom from the middle of April to June and is impacted by the amount of precipitation received (Coleman, R. A., 2002).

References:

Coleman, R. A. (2002). Corallorhiza wisteriana. In The Wild Orchids of Arizona and New Mexico

(pp.  53– 57). essay, Comstock Pub. Associates.

Taylor, D.L. 1997. The evolution of myco-heterotrophy and specificity in some North American orchids. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley

Freudenstein, J., & Barrett, C. (2014). Fungal host utilization helps circumscribe leafless Coralroot orchid species: An integrative analysis of Corallorhiza odontorhiza and C. wisteriana. Taxon, 63. https://doi.org/10.12705/634.3