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.
