Extreme Nature: The Weirdest Animals and Plants on the Planet

by Carwardine, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780061373893
• ISBN10: 0061373893
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

smelliest plant best water-walker longest migration hairiest animal best surfer tiniest mammal longest tongue fastest swimmer sharpest sense of smell strangest society hottest animal flashiest males slimiest animal fastest digger loudest bird call slipperiest plant stickiest skin deadliest love-life largest animal ever oldest leaves fattest carnivore deepest-living animal sleepiest animal

Excerpts

Extreme Nature

Chapter One

Most devious plant

Name
ghost orchid Epipogiurn aphllum

Location
North and Central Europe eastward to Japan

Ability
Cheating a fungus

The natural world, as we know it is built on partnerships. But in all societies there are cheats, and plants are no exception. Most green plants would be unable to exist without the help of fungi, which provide them with food-exchange partnerships. In fact, the invasion of the land by plants—algae—was probably only made possible by these types of partnerships. It has even been suggested that early land plants developed roots just so that they could join forces with the fungal roots, or hyphae.

Most plants are real partners, giving the carbohydrates that they manufacture using their chlorophyll. Some—notably orchids—have such a close partnership that they don't even bother to produce food packages to accompany their embryos into the world, instead relying on fungi in the soil to provide the food needed for germination and early growth. This allows an orchid to produce lightweight, microscopic seeds—millions of them.

Some orchids, however, have become cheats: they use fungi that have partnerships with trees, and they never give anything in exchange. Via fungal hyphae, these orchid vampires tap into the trees, siphoning off nutrients. The giveaway is often the fact that they have stopped producing chlorophyll. As a result, they aren't green but a rather sickly pinkish cream, like the ghost orchid, or brown, like the bird's-nest orchid. Some, such as western coralroot, are bloodred or even purple. The drawback is that, without the fungus, the orchid will die. And one day a fungus may just evolve a way to even the score.

Extreme Nature. Copyright © by Mark Carwardine. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Extreme Nature by Mark Carwardine
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.