#forest cryptids

Cool plant facts:

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The plant has been used as herbal medicine for anxiety.

Sometimes it's completely waxy white -blackens with age- but often has black flecks or pale pink coloration. Rare variants may have a deep red color.

When the plant gets brown colored it does it to look dry and avoid being eaten.

The fruit, an oval capsule-like thingy, enlarges and becomes upright when the seeds mature, at this point stem and capsule looking desiccated and dark brown or black.

Native to Asia, North America and northern South America.

Monotropa uniflora is the most common species in Wisconsin and the rest of North America. It is also known from Japan. There are relatives of this plant that occur throughout the world.

Unlike most plants, it is white because it does not contain chlorophyll.

Instead of generating energy from sunlight, it is parasitic.

Its hosts are certain fungi that are mycorrhizal - A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης mýkēs, “fungus”, and ῥίζα rhiza, “root” is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant- with trees, meaning it ultimately gets its energy from photosynthetic trees.

It’s not dependent on sunlight to grow, it can grow in very dark environments as in the understory of dense forest.

The stems bear a single flower.

Demon Lord Eli and Arch Angel Amari

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