Image from GBIF · CC BY-NC-ND
Species
yellow bird's nest
SPECIES
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderEricales
- FamilyEricaceae
via GBIF · Kew POWO
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 3,676
- With media
- 2,216
- Family
- Ericaceae
- Collections
- UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA MUSEUMS, NMMNHS, UTEP, MICH, GH, CIIDIR-IPN
- Recorded in
- Canada, United States, Poland, Mexico
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Monotropa hypopitys, syn. Hypopitys monotropa, also known as yellow bird's nest in Britain and Ireland, pinesap and false beechdrops in Canada and the United States, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the Monotropoideae subfamily of the family Ericaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is scarce within its range. M. hypopitys is a mycotrophic plant which means it obtains nutrients and fixed carbon by parasitizing the mycorrhizal networks of trees. It lacks chlorophyll and does not photosynthesize. The species name, M. hypopitys, is from Latinized Greek hypo-, "under", and pitys, "pine," referring to where it often grows.
The pink to cream flower, with four to five petals, is borne on a short stalk Monotropa hypopitys in Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, Washington
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Monotropa hypopitys” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.