Monotropa uniflora: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora
So is it in anyway related to mushroom?
Submitted 1 year ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/2fbd377a-93ab-49fe-9b41-78f0cf779ca2.png
Monotropa uniflora: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora
So is it in anyway related to mushroom?
Ghost Pipe is a fungi.
it’s a plant, but rather than photosynthesizing, it is what’s called a mycoheterotroph, which means it gets its nutrients by siphoning stuff from fungal networks in the soil, so, sorta?
It is a plant, just of a sort that has turned to parasitism I suppose for its nutrients. I believe they are part of a larger family of plants named saprophytes.
The other person is correct in calling it a mycohrtetotroh, sporophyte implies it lives of decaying plant matter which it doesn’t. Plants like these are interesting, no chlorophyll, what your seeing is only the flower and stem, the leaves are highly vestigial, there’s no main stem
Walter H. Prest described the plant as having an asparagus-like flavor once cooked.
Yeah I would expect this to just instantly kill me.
maybe he did as well
Unlike most plants, it is white and does not contain chlorophyll.[9] Instead of generating food using the energy from sunlight, it is parasitic, and more specifically a mycoheterotroph. Its hosts are in the Russulaceae family.[9] Most fungi are mycorrhizal, meaning that they grow symbiotically in association with tree roots. Through the fungal web of mycorrhizae, the M. uniflora roots ultimately sap food from where the host fungi are connected to the photosynthetic trees.
Sick. Note that plants generally fall on a spectrum between food-generating from sunlight and parasitism through their roots; though generally, plants don’t just steal nutrients from fungi, they exchange nutrients with them, i.e. it’s a mutualistic relationship.
So can we smoke it?
Only once.
They’re really cool little plants, I see them sometimes on trails when out hiking and it’s always a treat.
There’s rarer ones like in the family, like gnome plant and hypotytis, and the famous snow plant. Fun fact orchids are partial mycoheterotrophs, and some species have become much the same way as these plants, lost all its chlorophyll, the sad thing is mycoheterotph in general are quite rare, as their associated with specific fungus and environment. I think the Chinese have managed to cultivate one species of gastrodia orchid( full mycoheterotroph), the others are very rare species.
It has the same chemical in it aspirin does when you metabolize aspirin, so it’s good as an anti-inflammatory. It also helps to like calm the nerves and help you sleep.
As that chemical is actually an endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitor. That’s how aspirin works.
Totally thought I was replying to a different thread lol. Ugh brain.
And it has glycosides too! So it may also be toxic to humans.
Yeah, I actually picked up on that yesterday.
Someone that sent to traditional medicine gave me some. I think I will avoid it in the future.
I get most of the tweet but not the “who would post this?” part.
Wouldn’t everybody post it?
The Jim Rose circus is a famous counter-culture performance. At the show I saw a woman put paint in her butt and farted it onto a canvas. There was also light bulb eating, further nudity, chainsaw juggling etc
In that context, it would be surprising to see them tweet about botany, making this kinda a joke tweet in itself that they would tweet this, which is why it has the commentary.
that part exists as clickbait
No only super special nerds like me, I’m so quirky.
the only difference is that non-nerds would likely include a sentence about how it’s the only cure for gout or something, for extra clicks
Zacryon@feddit.org 1 year ago
These look like toilet paper rolls.