mycotrophic

adjective

(Gr. mykęs: fungus; trophę: food) Modified by a mycorrhizal relationship. Some flowering plants do not have photosynthetic chlorophyll-bearing (green) leaves and are completely parasitic on the stems and roots of other plants. In order to grow and reproduce, they must absorb their vital carbohydrates (sugars) and amino acids from the host plant. Some of these root and stem parasites include the most bizarre plants on earth. Since they are nonphotosynthetic, they are also called heterotrophic like most animals and humans. Some heterotrophic plants look more like pale, fleshy fungi than flowering plants. They live in the deep humus of shady forests and include some very strange and colorful species. These fungus flowers are referred to as mycotrophic (fungus-nutrition) because their carbohydrates and amino acids come from mycorrhizal soil fungi which are in turn attached to the roots of nearby forest trees. Like true parasitic flowering plants, mycotrophic wildflowers must absorb their energy-rich molecules from other host plants, but unlike the direct root and stem parasites, their carbohydrates and amino acids are derived from nearby root systems via a conduit of filamentous soil fungi. Using labeled sugars containing radioactive carbon 14, scientists have shown that carbohydrates synthesized by nearby trees pass into the mycorrhizal soil fungi and eventually into the mycotrophic fungus flowers.