Aliens in the Desert - Abducted by Pholisma sonorae

After years of searching for this oddball during the one time a year that it pokes its head out of the sand to flower (it spends its life completely underground attached to its host plant otherwise), I finally found Pholisma sonorae, albeit two weeks pre-flowering - an extremely rare evolutionary jewel in the Sonoran/Colorado desert.

It seems that both species of Pholisma (arenarium being the other one) prefer to parasitize woody members of the sunflower family, Asteraceae. In this case, the host is Ambrosia dumosa. Though these plants were still about two weeks premature of flowering, it was still great to be able to see them doing their thing. Check out the vestigial leaves at the base of that weird purple knob (ie the inflorescence). This genus was previously classified in a family known as Lennoaceae, an entirely parasitic family consisting of succulent perennials that also contains the genera Ammobroma and Lennoa. Lennoa occurs in Mexico, while Ammobroma is found in Columbia.

This plant is an obligate dune plant. It is only found from the scattered dune habitats on the border of Mexico and Eastern California/Southwestern Arizona. Hopefully this plant makes it into the 22nd Century. I find myself saying the same thing about so many plants these days.

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