EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

The Plant That Thinks It's a Fungus

Balanophora fungosa, Family Balanophoraceae
Mossman Gorge, Queensland, Australia

Explanation:  This is an amazing but tiny and easily overlooked plant of the Australian tropics.  Get down on your belly and say hello to Balanophora fungosa, the vascular plant that thinks it's a fungus.  

This is an obligate saprophyte, a vascular plant that produces no chlorophyll and cannot convert sunlight into energy for growth.  Rather, it grows as a parasite, feeding on roots of trees in the tropical forests of northeastern Australia.  It looks and acts like a fungus, but it is really a flowering plant (angiosperm).  The family Balanophoraceae is widely distributed throughout the southern hemisphere tropics.   

Looking for all the world like fungi, these are actually the start of
flowering stalks.  They will eventually produce a basal ring of
achlorophyllous (having no chlorophyll) modified yellow leaves, 
and some amazing flowering structures. 

Shown here in various growth stages, Balanophora fungosa
is found on the forest floor among decaying leaves, its roots
feeding on the roots of trees.  The white stalks on the upper
plant are male flowers.

Here is a closeup of the near pinhead-sized male flowers that ring each individual flowering stalk.  These male flowers are only 0.5-1 mm (0.02-0.04 inches) long.

What is even more incredible than these miniature flowers is that the globe of the flowering stalk is covered with nearly microscopic female flowers, hinted at in the photo here in the upper right (also see photo below).  They look like white dust and must be among the tiniest flowers in the world.

The plant might exude some chemical signal to attract this
fruit fly, who in turn might be serving to pollinate the plant.
Here, the fly is exploring the globe of the plant with
its ultra-tiny female flowers.  

So watch where you step in this amazing rainforest down under ... and take care to admire this plant that thinks it's a fungus.