📜 EwA Week Highlights: Ghostly Plants, 6925 species and Counting, EwA Walks & More...

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Claire O'Neill

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Nov 14, 2021, 1:04:14 PM11/14/21
to Earthwise Aware Discussion Group

Here's the recap of another busy week at EwA and a few highlights of what's coming...

📸  So many great events and sightings again this week, including Xiaochen's observation of a very special plant that is generally rare–although we see it in abundance in our corner of the world: Ghost pipes (Monotropa uniflora). This is a 'ghostly' plant indeed that owes its look to the fact that it does not have chlorophyll and therefore does not photo-synthesize. Yes, that is a plant! It belongs to the genus Monotropa. They are myco-heterotroph, in their case getting nutrients from supplier trees through an association (parasitism) with the subterranean fungal network. That mode of functioning is a marvel to me, even more so when that parasitism is targeted as is the case of beech drops-another Monotropa–that feeds from (well) beech trees and that we can also observe in the area. If you come to any of our walks in the Fells, you’ll have a chance to hear us chatting about their flowers and fruits, and how to recognize a fertilized flower… that sort of fun thing!

Check our many records of the plant > here. And below is Xiaochen's sighting of the plant yesterday during EwA's Forest Exploration event.


Pic: Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora) | iNaturalist record © Xiaochen Yan

📊  Thanks to all for great biodiversity records this week! - totaling 312 observations of 185 distinct species. Curious about this week's records that have been validated by the iNat community so far? > here.

Running tally: 🏆  To date, we recorded 87,860 observations of 6,925 distinct species! Check our EwA umbrella project and see the details per site/observer & more... > here. 

📅 EwA Coming Public Events

EwA Field Events » Check our public field events on the EwA Calendar, our next walk is Nov, Saturday 27th with Bill and Joe [ See EwA events calendar to register » ] Don't miss great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and of its wildlife!. Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting pressure on natural habitats that large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit to avoid no-shows (or cancel when you know you can't come)

■ EwA Fieldwork (& Resources)

We are monitoring phenology and entomofauna weekly at all sites. Our biodiversity and habitat documentation fieldwork is also as healthy as ever thanks to our group of core citizen scientists who simply rock! 

As the field season is winding down, we’re about to switch from weekly to monthly surveys, although a few of our sites will be active weekly still but shifting from survey to scouting mode (this applies for instance to the Long Pond and Horn Pond sites). 

🗺️ EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides - Field Rosters - Field Notes > All here! | ℹ️ More About EwA Citizen Science Program » here

Any questions❓ Don't be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.

Thanks and Have a great week!


 

Nature Conservation as a Way Of Life

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Claire O'Neill

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Nov 14, 2021, 2:04:10 PM11/14/21
to Earthwise Aware Discussion Group
Oops. Quick correction, beech drops are not Monotropa but Epifagus, also a parasitic plant and look alike that subsists on the roots of American beech. (Thanks, Larry for pointing that out).
Now I am going to add that to make it more complicated as often it is with taxonomy, Monotropa are not Monotropaceae (any more), but are now included within the Ericaceae. 
That changed some time in the past. Now, now... If you're curious about the beech drops, they are Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, that is a family of 'mostly' parasitic plants of the order Lamiales...

To simplify the whole matter: they are all parasitic. What I think would be interesting to know about is their full natural history as told by traditional societies. Any idea of what that might be?
 

Cheers! - Claire
Earthwise Aware | Executive Director

 

Nature Conservation as a Way Of Life

ⓘ www.earthwiseaware.org | EwA Newsletter Signup » 

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