That little plant with white flowers...

[Schoenholtz, Gloria]

Hi All,

It was bothering me that I could not remember the name of that little plant with white flowers that we saw on the last stop up on the Parkway yesterday. I knew I had seen it once or twice before. Once I got my hands on a field guide, it all came back to me: this is Virginia Pennywort. I saw it once or twice last spring.

Those reduced grayish leaves suggested that this plant has an alternative way of making a living, and the field guides readily tell us that it lives in association with mycorhizzal fungi, that in turn, live in association with woody plants (probably trees).

So, in some ways, we can put this plant on our list of "fungus finds" for the day!

Here's a link to my wildflower blog entry for Pennywort:

http://virginiawildflowers.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/virginia-pennywort/

Maybe this rain today will bring out the morels! Is HAS to!

Thanks for a nice day in the woods!

Gloria

[Rebecca Rader]

Thanks Gloria!  I just could not remember the name Pennywort!  Would you believe that right after you left we found 8 tiny Black Morels on the other side of the road from where we were focusing, and where we'd found so many in the past.  I wanted to call you back, but cell phone reception was spotty and I had left your number in the car, a half mile up the road. 
Everyone, in addition to the blog entry linked below, check out Gloria's beautiful blog entry about our Waiteville Foray last fall http://virginiawildflowers.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/a-mushroom-foray-august-2012/
I have attached a couple of photos from yesterday...I hope that worked right...
Becky Rader

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[S.G.]

I can't believe this!
I found these growing on my lawn yesterday under a Tulip tree. I was up late
last night looking in all my wildflower guides, and couldn't find it! I
found these where I normally find Clitopilus prunulus later in the Spring.
Is that the fungus that it normally associates with?

Thank you for the post and blog entry. I didn't think this mystery would be
solved so quickly!

Sue G.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Schoenholtz, Gloria" <sch...@vt.edu>
To: <NR...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 10:31 AM
Subject: [NRVMC] That little plant with white flowers...

[Rebecca Rader]

---

From: rebecc...@hotmail.com
To: fre...@gmail.com
Subject: RE: [NRVMC] That little plant with white flowers...
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:13:02 -0400

I realize this discussion got confusing--Gloria's original post about Virginia Pennywort was in reference to this flower we saw Sunday, and I had just happened to attach in my pictures the (pink) Spring Beauty with a little native pollinator on it :)
By the way, in reference to Sue's question--I could not find the answer as to what fungus the Pennywort is associated with, only that it is involved in one of those 3-way symbiotic relationships...

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Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:06:38 -0400
Subject: Re: [NRVMC] That little plant with white flowers...
From: fre...@gmail.com
To: rebecc...@hotmail.com

I have always known the wildflower as "spring beauty" (virginia or carolina, depending.) Genus Claytonia -- FF

--
Fred First / Floyd County VA
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[Drew]

For those interested and don't already know, there is a list for NRV Natural History.  If you are interested, you can find it here, https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/nrv-natural-history

I found some Virginia Pennywort last year and had it identified by a list member over there.  Here is my post, https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/nrv-natural-history/-G2MpEMO344 and to keep it on topic, there is a pic of a morel from last year as well! :)

Drew

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[Tony Airaghi]

Here is some very detailed historical description of Virginia Pennywort (Obolaria virginica).  Quite the read! 

 

Starts at page 369.  *Note Figure 6 on page 385 happens to look a lot like a Morel!

http://books.google.com/books?id=ht7zAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA369&ots=Eb93aHPcI5&dq=obolaria%20virginica%20%22theo%20holm%22&pg=PA369#v=onepage&q=obolaria%20virginica%20%22theo%20holm%22&f=false

 

 

-Tony