A Little Bit More
Indian Pipes © Solon Morse
In science, we’re always learning something new – that’s what makes it so interesting! Although the Indian Pipe, Monotropa uniflora, has long been regarded as a saprophyte (SAP-row-fight) - obtains its nutrition from dead and decaying material like many fungi - recent studies show it is a parasite, obtaining its nutrition at the expense of another living organism – or in this case, two organisms.
As the poster notes, since Indian Pipes have no chlorophyll and are unable to make their own food, they must acquire energy elsewhere. Although Indian Pipes have long been known to grow in close association with fungi at the base of trees, the true nature of this relationship wasn’t understood. It now looks like the Indian Pipe is parasitizing the mutualistic relationship (where two organisms actually work together for mutual benefit) between fungi and trees. In this fungus/tree relationship the fungus helps the tree by expanding its ability to obtain water and nutrients while the tree helps the fungus by providing it with sugars for growth. The Indian Pipe, a “third party”, taps into this mutually beneficial relationship and steals food from the two for its own growth and development.
Activities
Science – Symbiosis (sim-bee-OH-sis)
Objectives: Learn more about relationships between different organisms
Materials: Library or on line access
In nature, there are all kinds of interrelated relationships among organisms. Scientists have specific terminology for these relationships that helps them communicate what is going on. I thought it would be interesting to look at symbiosis a bit more closely.
Symbiosis (living together) – refers to 2 species that live in close association with one another. Symbiosis takes many different forms – positive (mutualism), negative (parasitism), or only one of two benefits but the other is not harmed ( commensalism) - that can be fun to learn about. For this activity, we’ll just stay with symbiosis in general.
Here are a few examples:
- Ants and Aphids – ants protect the aphids and aphids provide food for the ants
- Cleaner Wrasse and general fishes– the wrasse feeds on parasites from fish bodies and the fish have fewer pests on their bodies
- fungus and algae –when these two live together, a lichen is formed and both benefit
Now see if you can come up with the relationships between these symbiotic animals/plants:
- Dogs and fleas –
- Leeches and turtles –
- Deer and ticks –
- Canada Goldenrod and Peacock Fly –
- Monarch Butterfly and Common Milkweed –
- Humans and cold virus –
- Cows and Cattle Egrets –
- Tapeworm and dog –
- Honeybee and flower –
- Humans and bacteria in gut –
Key Concepts
Life Cycles, Food Webs /Food Pyramids, Adaptations and Diversity
Questions
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