The Living Stump
Boy, I'd jump if I saw a living stump! Imagine a stump whose sawn top is completely covered in bark. You can't count its growth rings because it's healed the wound that killed it with growing bark. It looks like a macabre stone or gnarled old tooth, with roots anchoring it against the force of the wind it once felt, but now without branches or leaves to catch the wind, the roots are superfluous...
or are they completely necessary? This organism can only live because before it was cut down, its roots grafted with the roots of another tree. Now, the photosynthate (sugar or food produced by photosynthesis) that is made by the symbiote passes through the roots to the stump, thus giving it enough life to function. The roots of the stump can also provide water and nutrients to the symbiote. WEIRD HUH!
Root grafting happens all the time, though living stumps are quite rare. Check it out at
www.pfranc.com/projects/LSD
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2 comments:
Reminds me of Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), a very very cool, non-photosynthesizing plant that steals its nutrients from the roots of surrounding plants.
yeah, it is similar to indian pipe, but it is such an anomaly, you know? The tree didn't exactly adapt itself over generations to be able to do this like the albino indian pipe did. It just happens as part of the capabilities of the tree.
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