Gymnosiphon suaveolens (Sampled Red List Index Flora of Peru)

Gymnosiphon suaveolens

Location ³

Colombia; Costa Rica; Ecuador; Guatemala; Honduras; Mexico; Nicaragua; Panama; Peru; Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of

Habitat ³

Gymnosiphon suaveolens is found in montane tropical rain forest. Species of the family Burmanniaceae are heterotrophic rather than autotrophic and are commonly termed "saprophytes" (living on decaying organic matter in the soil, similar to a fungus), although more correctly Burmanniaceae are obligate symbionts with mycorrihizal fungi, and it is the fungus which is directly saprophytic and the plant indirectly saprophytic as it actually lives parasitically on the fungus (hence they are sometimes more properly called 'mycotrophic plants'; Maas et al. 1986). Occurrences of such mycotrophic plants are often scattered and they are rarely common, although they may remain subterranean and undetected for many years, emerging to flower and fruit only when conditions are favourable. The local distribution of the species may be dependent more on the ecological requirements of the associated mycorrhizal fungus, but many saprophytes often occur in together, often in local habitats with very low light levels, such as the leaf litter of bamboo thickets within tropical rain forest, that are unsuitable for autotrophic plants (Maas et al. 1986).

References ³

Brummitt, N. 2013. Gymnosiphon suaveolens. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Fuentes y créditos

(c) MBG, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://images.mobot.org/tropicosthumbnails/TropicosImages2/046/04600037_001.jpg
(c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10421599
(c) consci2014, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA)