Pinedrops

Description:

Pinedrops are an interesting, attractive wildflower species with stout, fleshy stem from 20-120 cm high. The stems are solitary or often in clusters and they are yellowish to reddish brown in color as well as unbranched. The stems are noticeably glandular-pubescent. The leaves are awl-shaped and up to 2-4 cm long with fringed margins. The numerous flowers are part of a long, loose raceme which is equal in length to the lower stem. The pedicels are slender and decurved and subtended by much-reduced linear bracts. The calyx is about half as long as the corolla and is covered with sticky, gland-tipped hairs. The glabrous corolla is ovoid in shape and is broadest near the base, tapering gradually to the tip. The corolla is 5-8 mm long and pale yellow in color. Plants are saprophytes and lack chlorophyll.

Habitat:

Spotted in a coniforous forest at Suncadia. Cascade foothills above 2000 ft. Pinedrops are found in deep humus soils of coniferous forests from the lowlands to well up into the mountains. In the Pacific Northwest, it is often found beneath Ponderosa pines. Pinedrops may be found from Alaska south to southern California and east to the Atlantic Coast. In the Rocky Mts. it is found southward to Mexico. It may be found between the elevations of 100'-4000' from near Larch Mt. and Three Corner Rock in the west eastward to the Klickitat River

Notes:

Pinedrops is a member of the Indian-pipe family (Monotropaceae). Pinedrops is a root parasite, depending on its association with a mycorrhizal fungus that is also associated with a pine tree. Pinedrops produces very little chlorophyll and is therefore not green in color and does not conduct photosynthesis.