Bird's-Nest Orchid steals nutrition from beech trees with a symbiotic fungi!

Описание: Mycorrhizal fungi intertwine with the basket-like roots of Bird's Nest Orchids (Neottia nidus-avis) suppling the plant with carbohydrates manufactured by photosynthesis in the leaves of nearby beech trees( fagus sylvatica)! These orchids have no green whatsoever! The have no leaves, no chlorophyll, and do not photosynthesis and yet they are still true flowering plants. As flowering plants they produce flowers, are pollinated by insects and produce viable seeds. In this video I compare Bird's-nest Orchid to similar no photosynthetic flowering plants in the forests near my home in the Appalachian mountains. Both Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) and Bear Corn (Conopholis americana) have complex saprophytic or parasitic life styles intertwined with a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.