If this plant never emerges above the ground (even the flower remains underground unless disturbed by curious botanists), how does it spread its seeds? The seeds would be deposited right on top of the parent.
The article briefly mentions rats eating the seeds, so maybe this plant relies on surface disturbance (animals, heavy rain, etc.) to carry its seeds away?
Or perhaps this plant has no need to spread far and wide, since it depends so heavily on a specific combination of fungus and shrub. It would be futile to spread the seeds outside of this narrow habitable zone.
>>Rhizanthella gardneri reproduces vegetatively by which it can produce three daughter plants. They also undergo sexual reproduction, and underground insects such as termites and gnats are known to pollinate the flowers
"Because of its rarity, the locations of the orchids are a secret."
I always have mixed feelings when reading things like that. Specially for such a beautiful flower! Let's hope they find a way to reproduce them in the lab and end with the secrecy.
Holoparasites are, so far, virtually impossible. See rafflesia, for instance. Haustorium's one hell of an organ - most likely how this orchid extracts nutrients from the mycelium.
Some other good examples are snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea)[1] and phantom orchid (Cephalanthera austiniae)[2]. It's also probably worth mentioning that this is an example of symbiosis in the borad sense. It's not a mutualistic relationship where both the fungus and the orchid benefit. The parasitic plant is using the fungus essential as a straw to suck sugars and nutrients from the roots of other plants. The fungus does not appear to gain in any way from the relationship.
>my unrealistic view of what Australia is like, but that doesn't seem very enjoyable, safe, or even sane.
That's Australia and Australians for ya, mate. And especially young Australian Field Scientists. They're a hardy and fun loving people in a terrible and unforgiving land. Source? Personal experience and historical documents.
I love that it's "there are only 50 of these rare orchids that live their whole lives underground left!", next to photos of one being unearthed and exposed to the air. Also "their existence is a top secret, so all you rabid adventurer collector types, don't go reading this article and come looking for them now" - hilar!
What to Submit
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
[+] [-] kijin|11 years ago|reply
The article briefly mentions rats eating the seeds, so maybe this plant relies on surface disturbance (animals, heavy rain, etc.) to carry its seeds away?
Or perhaps this plant has no need to spread far and wide, since it depends so heavily on a specific combination of fungus and shrub. It would be futile to spread the seeds outside of this narrow habitable zone.
[+] [-] Malcx|11 years ago|reply
>>Rhizanthella gardneri reproduces vegetatively by which it can produce three daughter plants. They also undergo sexual reproduction, and underground insects such as termites and gnats are known to pollinate the flowers
[+] [-] iamcurious|11 years ago|reply
I always have mixed feelings when reading things like that. Specially for such a beautiful flower! Let's hope they find a way to reproduce them in the lab and end with the secrecy.
[+] [-] madaxe_again|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ars|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Alex3917|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whyenot|11 years ago|reply
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcodes
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalanthera_austiniae
[+] [-] kbenson|11 years ago|reply
It's probably just my unrealistic view of what Australia is like, but that doesn't seem very enjoyable, safe, or even sane.
[+] [-] kleer001|11 years ago|reply
That's Australia and Australians for ya, mate. And especially young Australian Field Scientists. They're a hardy and fun loving people in a terrible and unforgiving land. Source? Personal experience and historical documents.
[+] [-] tehchromic|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvaldes|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djulius|11 years ago|reply
I don't know why, but I suspect people looking for karma, but I would like to be proven the contrary.
[+] [-] briandear|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mz|11 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Hacker News Guidelines
What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.