Cultivating saprophytic plants?

[damienw133]

Howdy y'all,

I know this is going to be an incredibly niche topic, but i was just wondering if anyone on here has had any experience in cultivating any of Australia's native leafless saprophytic plants or (any foreign ones for that matter)?

I've had a bit of a look online about it but its such a niche plant geek topic that i've not come up with much except to say that certain (decidedly pretty) species seem to be impossible to cultivate outside of their native forest ranges.

i've been looking at a handful of specific plants and species such as Dipodium roseum, gastrodia species, Yaonia japonica and monotropa species such as uniflora

Dopodium roseum:

photo_2022-05-10_23-59-19.jpg

Gastrodia sesamoides:

photo_2022-05-10_23-59-21.jpg

Yaonia japonica:

photo_2022-05-10_23-59-22.jpg

Monotropa uniflora:

photo_2022-05-10_23-59-26.jpg

[shibui]

The first 2 are Aussie native orchids and there are a few other species in those 2 genera. I've never heard of anyone being able to keep those alive in cultivation but a Gastrodia came up and flowered in a garden I maintain here in Yack last year with no assistance. I'm interested to see if it flowers again this spring.
Collecting wild Gastrodia and Dipodium just reduces the population of endangered species as I've never heard of one surviving transplant. Please just enjoy them in the bush.

Yaonia appears to be another orchid.

You should note that all orchids are covered by CITES - (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) so they cannot legally be exported or imported.

[BirchMan]

To clarify these are all plants that don't produce their own chlorophyll and are entirely parasitic?

[damienw133]

To clarify these are all plants that don't produce their own chlorophyll and are entirely parasitic?

As far as I've been able to deduce it seems that way, either all or largely parasitic and dependant on a combination of certain fungi and rotting wood/leaf litter.

The thought occurred to me that some very clever or obsessive person might have found a way to cultivate them since a lot of fungi can be cultivated to varying degrees of success...

[shibui]

Maybe parasitic is not quite correct. They don't seem to rely on other plants for their food as parasites normally do.
Saphrophytic means relying on decaying vegetation for food. There's probably some complex relationship with fungi that help break down the organic matter but I'm not sure if the relationship is mutual as in pines and mycorrhizal fungi or legumes and rhyzobia bacteria, whether these plants just exploit the fungi in a one way relationship or whether they have some way to exploit the decaying organic matter directly. The big problem with finding out is if they cannot be cultivated it is hard to check these relationships.

[damienw133]

Maybe parasitic is not quite correct. They don't seem to rely on other plants for their food as parasites normally do.
Saphrophytic means relying on decaying vegetation for food. There's probably some complex relationship with fungi that help break down the organic matter but I'm not sure if the relationship is mutual as in pines and mycorrhizal fungi or legumes and rhyzobia bacteria, whether these plants just exploit the fungi in a one way relationship or whether they have some way to exploit the decaying organic matter directly. The big problem with finding out is if they cannot be cultivated it is hard to check these relationships.

That seems to be the big question with a lot of researchers from what i was reading about them - to what extent they are reliant on specific fungi and what sort of exchange is going on between the two.
I think there were a few that leaned more toward the parasitic side than others, but even there it wasnt a purely one sided affair.

I found a few gardeners in america who claimed to have been able to transplant monotropa uniflora with a fair degree of success, provided it was done with minimal disturbance and taking a big chunk of the original soil along with it, but it'd be interesting to find out whether they continued to thrive long term.

[damienw133]

In lieu of any of these finnicky beasts though....would anyone be able to suggest anything vaguely aesthetically similar but easier to grow/more readily available?

[KIRKY]

A few of the bulbs will flower first before having foliage as an example below if your looking for just a flower display.
Amaryllis Belladonna, Haemanthus coccineus, colchicums (my favourite crested iris it does have small leaves great for a rockery.
Cheers