The Plant That Cheats
Cryptothallus mirabilis is not a typical plant. It has no green leaves, no stem reaching for the sun, and no chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis. This organism lives its life almost entirely underground, a pale, ghost-like plant in the damp soil of birch and pine forests. Its common name, "ghostwort," is fitting for a plant that appears as a pallid, sepia-white structure hidden from light. It survives through a complex nutritional strategy called mycoheterotrophy. It does not create its own food, it steals it.
The plant acts as an epiparasite. It forms a relationship with a specific type of fungus, usually from the genus Tulasnella. This fungus, in turn, has a mycorrhizal relationship with the roots of nearby trees, such as birch. The fungus draws carbohydrates from the tree, and Cryptothallus then parasitizes the fungus, siphoning off the nutrients it needs to survive. This indirect theft from the host tree allows the plant to thrive without ever seeing the sun. The physical plant is a small, brittle, branched underground structure called a thallus, rarely growing more than 3 centimeters long.