Photosynthesis – Tendrils

Slowly Slowly

Slowly, slowly, autumn’s full blown color palette is creeping in. Right now it is: “Oh! Look at that tree!” Not a hillside of color but just a few leaves here and there turning with all their might to a spectacle of hues.

Changes in a leaf’s world, encourages slowing and stopping of photosynthesis which makes the leaf lose its chlorophyll and its green coloring. Depending on what compounds are most prominent in the leaf, determines its autumn color.

Carotenoids, and flavonoids both contribute yellows, while carotenoids also include oranges and reds in their repertoire. Both these compounds deminish, like the chlorophylls, but more slowly, allowing their colors to shine through autumn.

Another set of compounds, anthocyanins, a member of the flavonoids family, plays a part in some autumn leaf color. While carotenoids and flavonoids are present in the leaves during the growing season, anthocyanins are not. Autumn is the time for some leaves to manufacture this compound through increased sugar concentrations exposed to sunlight. This gives way to rich red, purple and magenta coloring in the those leaves.

Soon we’ll be at peak leaf season. I can’t wait.

Virginia Pennywort

An odd little clump of a plant that I’ve only seen in one spot in my travels along the trails up here in the mountains. Virginia Pennywort (Obolaria virginica). The only member of its genus. How special. Leaves and flowers grow all squashed together as if grown inside a tight space.

Virginia Pennywort is native to the eastern United States. It’s a plant that is mycotrophic, which is a type of symbiotic relationship. This involves the roots of a woody plant that uses photosynthesis to get its nutrients, and microrrhizal fungi. These three items (Virginia Pennywort, woody plant and fungi) involved in carbon, water and nutrients being shared by these three plants. So, though it does have green leaves, it doesn’t depend entirely on photosynthesis. This is called hemiparasitic, or partially parasitic.

Nature is so amazing.

Witch Hazel in Spring

American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), my hero.

“The American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is one of those plants that would like to have everyone’s undivided attention. You know the type: a bit of a rebel, marches to the beat of its own drum. This native shrub’s unwillingness to heed convention has made it popular among gardeners for hundreds of years.” Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Leaves emerging. Branches still decorated not with flowers, but what remains of the flowers that occurred at an unheard of time for blooming, October, November, some even into December. These are the calyxes of those strappy yellow blooms.

Folded up as vintage hand fans, growing daily, expanding.

Unfolding day by day. Adding rich green to the landscape.

Like other tree leaves as they open, the leaves begin working on their purpose, photosynthesis. Using carbon dioxide, sunlight and water they create sugars for the tree. Those sugars give the Witch Hazel energy to grow. Photosynthesis also creates oxygen which we animals need in order to breathe. Such a monumental task for these green leaves no bigger than six inches.

Mistletoe in Arizona

Juniper Mistletoe (Phoradendron juniperinum). Looking back at photos from a trip to the Southwest. Such a wonderful part of the country. I love to roam out there. To find new plants and animals. This, a species of Mistletoe that I was not familiar with.

Juniper Mistletoe is a plant that grows on Juniper trees in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, California, Texas and northern Mexico at elevations from 3,200-7,500 feet. It’s a hemiparasitic plant, meaning it contains chlorophyl and performs some photosynthesis but obtains part of its water, or nutrients from its host plant.

Smooth False Foxglove

To some degree Smooth False Foxglove (Aureolaria laevigata) is a parasite, depending a bit on its host plant, the mighty Oak Tree. It can be referred to as a partial plant parasite, a semiparasite, or a hemiparasite. This means, it is not entirely dependent upon the roots of an Oak Tree for all its sustenance. This plant has chlorophyll and performs photosynthesis. It’s sort of a parasite. But not entirely.

This is in contrast to plants that are entirely parasitic – holoparasites. A holoparasite does not perform photosynthesis and depends exclusively on their host plant for nourishment. This native to eastern North America, Smooth False Foxglove uses roots called haustoria to connect to the roots of its host Oak Tree to absorb sugars and proteins. Along with its host Oak Tree, Smooth False Foxglove flourishes.

Bear Corn

There are so many awesome treasures to be found in the woods. One of those treasures that is right up there near the top of my list is Bear Corn (Conopholis americana). It’s a native to eastern North America.

This is a plant that doesn’t have a speck of the color green because Bear Corn has no chlorophyll. Normally plants use chlorophyll and light to make food. But this plant isn’t able to perform photosynthesis. It’s a parasite on the roots of oak trees and perhaps beech trees as well.

These pinecone looking arrangements are the flowering structures that are sent up after four years of taking in nourishment from the oak or beech roots.

Four years underground taking in sustenance. The flowers emerge in the spring and bloom in a similar manner to other flowers.

Bear Corn is pollinated by flies and bees and is also capable of self pollination. After pollination the blooms are replaced by fruit containing seeds.

In the Shenandoah and Smoky Mountains Bear Corn represents a surprising percentage of the diet of bears, ten to fifteen percent. Deer, raccoon and coyote also eat these plants.

By autumn the fruit which has not been eaten will wither and drop, leaving the seeds to return to the soil to again seek out the oak or beech roots. This Bear Corn plant will continue sending up flowers each year for as many as six years.