Walkers in the northern woods can hardly failed to have wondered about them. Pale ghosts in the gloom of the understory, emerging from the leaf litter.
Formerly classed as saprophytes, feeding directly on dead and decaying matter--think famed Triffids of science fiction--they are now known to be botanically even more interesting. And make fanciers of Orchidaceae and Ericaceae take notice.
These non-photosynthesizing plants are not parasitic. They obtain their nutrients by living in a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. The fungi, in turn, are associated with vascular plants. There are believed to be at least 400 species of such plants that totally depend on such relationships and another 20,000 species that are partially so.
