User:Ssanchez31/sandbox

Short description of Species:
Corallorhiza trifida is commonly referred to as early coralroot, pale coralroot, northern coralroot, and yellow coralroot. This coralroot species is native to North America, and Eurasia and has been reported in the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, India, Nepal, Kashmir, Pakistan and just about every country within Europe (Corallorhiza Trifida [Coralloriza] - Flora Italiana, n.d.; Plants of the World Online, Kew Science, n.d.; Gleason & Cronquist, 1963).

C. trifida is known to be either partially, or fully mycoheterotrophic, meaning that the plant receives most or all of its nutrients from a fungal symbiont which is an ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete of the genus Tomentella found within the Thelephoracae lineage. C. trifida gains about 50% of its nitrogen content from its fungal symbiont, where the fungus receives about 70% of its carbon from the plant (Zimmer et al., 2008)

Flowers:
Trifida is derived from the Latin word “split into three” in reference to the three lobed lip flower appearance. Leaves are absent and it produces 20 flowers in which color is great aid for identification which expresses a greenish to yellow coloration in addition to an unspotted white lip that stretches about 1cm across.

Taxonomy:
Kingdom

Plantae – plantes, Planta, Vegetal, plants

Division

Tracheophyta – vascular plants, tracheophytes

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Asparagales

Family

Orchidaceae – orchids

Genus

Corallorhiza Gagnebin – coralroot

Species

Corallorhiza trifida Châtel. – yellow coralroot

Distribution and Habitat:
Corallorhiza trifida has a broad circumboreal distribution, ranging from Eurasia to Canada and down into the northern parts of the United States including Alaska. Corallorhiza trifida tends to be found in elevations between 9,000-10,500 feet and grows in damp areas of pine and fir forests or partially hidden under shrub branches. They begin blooming in the middle of June through late July (Coleman, R. A., 2002).

Conservation Status
Corallorhiza trifida is considered safe due to its distribution occurring mostly in protected wilderness areas within National Forest Lands (Coleman, R. A., 2002).

Description of Species:
Corallorhiza wisteriana is commonly known as spring coralroot, arousing coralroot, and Wister’s coralroot. This coralroot species is widespread and ranges through Mexico, and parts of the United States including the Rocky Mountains, Appalachians, Southeast, Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.

C. wisteriana is known to be partially or fully mycoheterotrophic meaning that it can derive part or all of its nutrients from its fungal symbiont. C. wisteriana’s main fungal symbiont was found to be within the family of Russulacae, however, it should be noted that some are also associated with the family Thelephoracae (Taylor 1997). C. wisteriana also tends to have high specificity with one fungal symbiont and is known to not associate with more than one fungal symbiont (Freudenstein & Barrett, 2014). In addition (Freudenstein & Barrett, 2014) also found that these two distinct polymorphisms within the fungal communities associated which led them to believe that C. wisteriana has shown two host shifts.

Flowers:
The flowers of C. wisteriana consist of slender pedicels, sepals, and petals. Its sepals are colored tan, purple, and yellow with green more toward the base. The lip is colored white and spotted with reddish to purple dots, however some can appear fully white.

Taxonomy:
Kingdom:

Plantae

Phylum:

Anthophyta

Class:

Monocotyledoneae

Order:

Orchidales

Family:

Orchidaceae

Genus:

Corallorhiza

Distribution and Habitat:
C. wisteriana is found in the eastern part of the United States ranging from Pennsylvania, down south to Florida and west through Arizona. They grow at elevations that are between 5,500-9,800ft and are usually on flat forest floors or steep hillsides, but also grow in deep duff and among rocks. They bloom from the middle of April to June and is impacted by the amount of precipitation received (Coleman, R. A., 2002).

Conservation Status
Corallorhiza wisteriana is considered safe at the time of this writing (Coleman, R. A., 2002).

References:
Coleman, R. A. (2002). Corallorhiza wisteriana. In The Wild Orchids of Arizona and New Mexico

(pp.  53– 57). essay, Comstock Pub. Associates.

Taylor, D.L. 1997. The evolution of myco-heterotrophy and specificity in some North American orchids. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley

Freudenstein, J., & Barrett, C. (2014). Fungal host utilization helps circumscribe leafless Coralroot orchid species: An integrative analysis of Corallorhiza odontorhiza and C. wisteriana. Taxon, 63. https://doi.org/10.12705/634.3