Corallorhiza odontorhiza, common name fall coral-root or small-flowered coral-root, is a species of orchid widespread across eastern and central United States, and reported also from Mexico, Central America, Quebec and Ontario. In North America, it occurs in forested areas up to an elevation of 2800 m (9300 feet).[1][5][6][7]
Corallorhiza odontorhiza | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Order: | Asparagales |
Family: | Orchidaceae |
Subfamily: | Epidendroideae |
Genus: | Corallorhiza |
Species: | C. odontorhiza
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Binomial name | |
Corallorhiza odontorhiza | |
Synonyms[1][2][3][4] | |
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Corallorhiza odontorhiza is a non-photosynthetic species, with no chlorophyll. Hence it relies on fungi in the soil to supply it with nutrients. Stems are yellow to brown, bulbous at the base. There are no leaves. Flowers are typically reddish-purple with a white lip, the lip with small purple spots, though some plants are cleistogamous with non-opening flowers.[8] The plant flowers from August through October in the eastern US.[9][10][11]
Infraspecific taxa
editThree infraspecific taxa are recognized as of May 2014:[1]
- Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. odontorhiza – Quebec, Ontario, eastern and central United States
- Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. pringlei (Greenm.) Freudenst. – Mexico, Central America, Ontario, eastern United States
- Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. pringlei f. radia Freudenst. – southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador
Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. odontorhiza
editThe flowers of var. odontorhiza are cleistogamous and either closed or only slightly open. Often one or two flowers in a raceme will be open slightly more than the others and a narrow lip (2.6–3.8mm long, 1.7–2.2mm wide) may be visible. Because flowers self-pollinate and no external pollinators are required first, the ovaries of this variation will start swelling soon after flowering.[9]
Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. pringlei f. pringlei
editFlowers of var. pringlei are chasmogamous and will open up. Their upper two petals and upper sepal form a hood, with the two side sepals bending outwards. The lip is visible and wider than with var. odonthoriza – it is used by pollinators to land on.[12]
Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. pringlei f. radia
editThis form of var. pringlei is only known from southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. It is completely cleistogamous and peloric – that is unlike with var. odontorhiza the bottom-most petal does not form a lip but looks just like the other 5 petals/sepals. Since it is assumed that a peloric form of the orchid could develop anywhere as a spontaneous mutation it is only recognized as a form and not a full variation.[9]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Corallorhiza odontorhiza". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
- ^ "Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. odontorhiza". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
- ^ "Corallorhiza odontorhiza". Tropicos. Missouri Botanical Garden.
- ^ "Corallorhiza odontorhiza". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
- ^ Magrath, Lawrence K.; Freudenstein, John V. (2002). "Corallorhiza odontorhiza". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 26. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
- ^ CONABIO. 2009. Catálogo taxonómico de especies de México. 1. In Capital Nat. México. CONABIO, Mexico City.
- ^ "Corallorhiza odontorhiza". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
- ^ Bentley, Stanley (2000). Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina. p. 80. ISBN 0807848727.
- ^ a b c Freudenstein, J. V. 1997. A monograph of Corallorhiza (Orchidaceae). Harvard Papers in Botany 1(10): 5–51.
- ^ Poiret, Jean Louis Marie. Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles (Second edition) 10: 375. 1818.
- ^ Hamer, F. 1988. Orchids of Central America. Selbyana 10(Suppl.): 1–430.
- ^ Hilty, John. "Autumn Coralroot". Illinois Wildflowers. Retrieved 2021-09-09.