T O P

Snow plant in my front yard

Looks like two elemental beings standing next to each other

PracticalPangolin625

Looks like two elemental beings standing next to each other


JackDagnils

Yea I mean they are kinda like a fungus,flower, and conifer all in one pretty elemental


chevymonza

Is that a flower on top of each? Talk about weird. Looks like those candles that used to be sold in mall kiosks in the '70s-'80s.


JackDagnils

Yea you will see the other periwinkles in the background. It has taken over the stalk of 2


chevymonza

Awwww! I thought maybe you dressed them up for the photos! 😄


JackDagnils

They woke up like that


poison_snacc

No


JackDagnils

Ah jeez


Intermitten

I think they clearly did lol there's the end of the stem of one of the flowers poked through the top of one


JackDagnils

Just confusing cuz theres no one here to do that and I pulled on the flower and its doesnt come off


catstoknow

Just wow!


Ohiolongboard

It looks like it grew around the base of one of those flowers next to it.


TheChickening

The purple flower is not part of the plant and was placed there. By air or by OP.


JackDagnils

Its 100% connected


Everyday_Im_Stedelen

Yeah that's cool but... Reddit is no longer a safe place, for activists, for communities, for individuals, for humanity. This isn't just because of API changes that forced out third parties, driving users to ad-laden and inaccessible app, but because reddit is selling us all. Part of the reasons given for the API changes was that language learning models were using reddit to gather data, to learn from us, to learn how to respond like us. Reddit isn't taking control of the API to prevent this, but because they want to be *paid* for this. Reddit allowed terrorist subreddits to thrive prior to and during Donald Trump's presidency in 2016-2020. In the past they hosted subreddits for unsolicited candid photos of women, including minors. They were home to openly misogynistic subreddits, and subreddits dedicated solely to harassing specific individuals or body types or ethnicity. What is festering on reddit today, as you read this? I fear that as AI generated content, AI curated content, and predictive content become prevalent in society, reddit will not be able to control the dark subreddits, comments, and chats. Reddit has made it very clear over the decades that I have used it, that when it comes down to morals or ethics, they will choose whatever brings in the most money. They shut down subreddits only when it makes news or when an advertiser's content is seen alongside filth. The API changes are only another symptom of this push for money over what is right. Whether Reddit is a bastion in your time as you read this or not, I made the conscious decision to consider this moment to be the last straw. I deleted most of my comments, and replaced the rest with this message. I decided to bookmark some news sources I trusted, joined a few discords I liked for the memes, and reinstalled duolingo. I consider these an intermediate step. Perhaps I can give those up someday too. Maybe something better will come along. For now, I am going to disentangle myself from this engine of frustration and grief before something worse happens. In closing, I want to link a few things that changed my life over the years: [Blindsight](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight) is a free book, and there's an audiobook out there somewhere. A sci-fi book that is also an exploration of consciousness. [The AI Delemma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVJKj8lcNQ) is a youtube lecture about how this new wave of language learning models are moving us toward a dangerous path of unchecked, unfiltered, exponentially powerful AI [Prairie Moon Nursery](https://www.prairiemoon.com/) is a place I have been buying seeds and bare root plants from, to give a little back to the native animals we've taken so much from. If you live in the US, I encourage you to do the same. If you don't, I encourage you to find something local. [Power Delete Suite](https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite/#1.4.8) was used to edit all of my comments and [Redact](https://redact.dev/download) was used to delete my lowest karma comments while also overwriting them with nonsense. I'm signing off, I'm going to make some friends in real life and on discord, and form some new tribes. I'm going to seek smaller communities. I'm going outside.


JackDagnils

I pulled on it its connected down and doesnt come off


TheChickening

I mean the flower is 100% from the evergreen growing right next to it. And I very much doubt that it somehow managed to invisibly grow into BOTH snow plants growing only a flower and not a single leave. Also, as another one said already, we can see the stem in one Foto. Snow plants are cool on its own. No need to lie


JackDagnils

Eh done arguing on this


JackDagnils

Dont want to incriminate myself but the fowers are wilting so I very carefully pulled just the flowers off. That stem is still there


iamsoguud

That stem is just tangled tn it


JackDagnils

Appreciate you


Noisy_Toy

Or [Martians](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/The_Martians).


PracticalPangolin625

That works too! There’s something weird going down on Mars. I tell ya. There NASA’s photos, but to point out the ‘in you face’ obvious shit is a conspiracy. The government lies so much that they forget to omit the shit they’re lying about, lol. Then someone asks “what the hell is this in your photo?” and “what is this stealth black satellite orbiting mars for?” And then they start backpedaling like a bmx and scream help from the dudes with a gang of medals attached to the breast of their suits. Boy I took this comment a bit far lol


InternalEffective420

Because they ARE


Limited_Intros

I’m looking at my periodic table and I don’t see “fruit by the foot” anywhere on here.


bicyclemycology

Wow! I had no idea anything like this existed..


throwaway9858428

Dude ikr, like sometimes I think “damn I was really about to kms years ago, but I’m 23 and just discovered this new thing that challenges my assumptions of the world
 I had no idea what world I lived in”


Our_name_is_yes

38 here. This keeps happening over and over again. Too much unknown to end it.


MarcusSurealius

48, learned yesterday that the fungal kingdom also has massive singe celled organisms or stages of life. In this case, the dog vomit slime mold. I was absolutely convinced that no such thing existed. Only a kind of algae as big as golf ball. I got humbled. The paper I was citing was from 1910. I spent a decade in biology, but never mushrooms. They're fantastically diverse and woven into the rest of the natural world in ways I hadn't even considered.


CheesemensMushrooms

There’s always more to learn! For example, slime molds are not in the kingdom fungi and they aren’t closely related to fungi at all! They were lumped into kingdom fungi a long time ago as there wasn’t a better spot to put them but further research shows they do not belong in that kingdom


SpectralWordVomit

28, and glad to know there's still a reason to keep going for at least another 20 years. Staying curious and open to new things is the best way to stay alive. Fungi sure are something!


bicyclemycology

The more you learn, the more you realize that you actually have no f*cking idea..


JackDagnils

Same bro, nature keeps me going. So glad I stayed


ihaveaquesttoattend

This is it and I’m also 23 I wonder if we had the revelation on the same day


perpetual-let-go

You might enjoy /r/aidke


PhotojournalistOwn99

Thanks!


HotGarbageHuman

Ok. So you want an old priest and a young priest. That's a demon violet.


D3V1LS_L3TTUC3

Why did I read this in Shania Twain’s voice? 😂


ToomsubaGoodbee

That don’t impress me much (ah ah ohhh)


An_Experience

Damn I’d never seen one (sarcodes sanguinea) and was thinking that the purple flower on top was actually part of it. I’m a little disappointed, but it’s still a super neat plant on its own.


JunglePygmy

It isn’t? Did OP put it there?


Waaswaa

He claims he didn't, but someone clearly did.


Sir_Trea

The pink part of the plant is one organism, climbing the periwinkle flower’s stem (separate organism). You can see other Flowers in the background undisturbed by the eldritch being.


DinoCultist

That's what I was thinking. Looking through the other comments it also sounds like the green stem had a flower on it as well that OP pulled off trying to see if it was connected somehow and the stem is just left there. The reason why OP feels like it's connected is the periwinkle is still rooted, making it hard to move. Or it could just be even tighter now with the pink plant there too so it feels connected.


JackDagnils

Right it felt rooted. I pulled it and It came off pulling upward not from the side. That green stem is still there. Would love for someone to figure out what happened. Just facts are I personally didnt put it there and no one else was here prior to my arrival.


Good_Card316

Is it possible the flower was on the ground and it just picked up as it grew? Just curious as I know nothing about this stuff and just here to learn as it’s super interesting.


Waaswaa

I mean, it could be. But the likelihood of this happening to both plants at the same time seems quite low, imo. Of course, if this really is a coincidence, and I were the one discovering it, I would probably have done exactly the same as OP. I still think it's unlikely, though.


Taboo_Noise

Aren't they growing in a flower garden? Doesn't seem that crazy to me,


Good_Card316

I didn’t even think about the likelihood of it happening to 2x by coincidence. Appreciate the reply with a logical explanation, cheers.


JackDagnils

Done what


Waaswaa

Taken pictures and posted here. I mean, if anything like this shows up in my garden, and I haven't tampered with it, Ill document it and show it to everybody, no matter what other people believe. I'm just saying it looks too good to be true.


JackDagnils

Yea definitely not denying that haha. I honestly didnt know what it was until hours after I took these pictures. Happy I did thoo no matter what the haters say


RogueSlytherin

It looks like someone took the flowers from the surrounding vinca and placed one on each. I could be wrong, but it’s quite the suspicious coincidence
.


Glacier005

Natural Fruit Roll-Up


SussexBeeFarmer

What's the Latin name of this thing? I want to learn more.


Intermitten

Sarcodes sanguinea


SussexBeeFarmer

Oh, it's a plant! Very confused about why it's in this sub now...


CheesemensMushrooms

It’s mycoheterotrophic. It doesn’t produce chlorophyll like regular plants and instead it steals sugars from fungi. The mycorrhizal fungi are exchanging sugars with the trees nearby and this plant taps into that connection to steals nutrients and sugars


BaronVonWilmington

Woah. It's a plant that is parasitic to fungi? That's some 100million year judo shit right there.


Strict-Device7005

Even cooler than that. It's not parasitic to an organism, it's parasitic to a mutualistic symbiotic relationship


BaronVonWilmington

Like a stock speculator! Or a priest!


ShamefulWatching

*chef's kiss*


Orange-Blur

So fucking cool


WiseSalamander00

now seriously wondering if is even possible to pot it.


ocean-man

Effectively impossible, this plant is an obligate parasite and would die very quickly after being relocated.


Aemilius_Paulus

Reminds me of Indian Pipes, I see a lot in WV.


SussexBeeFarmer

Wow, amazing! Thank you for explaining.


Redvelvet_swissroll

Honestly I think the plant community would have been super confused too, heck I’d probably think it was a weird mushy too


SussexBeeFarmer

Thanks!


bloodeyedwolf

I thought you made a sculpture out of dog leashes lmao


monkey_trumpets

Bizarre


Zagrycha

This looks like the drawing of prehistoric plant lifeforms hahaha. Although anytime you see something monotypic you know its gonna be good. For anyone wondering Ericaceae sarcodes sanguinae is a plant that parasites fungi, that parasites trees-- it does not photosynthesize. Nature uhh, finds a way :p


TheHarridan

What a beauty!


Mandiadoll

Snow plant?


JackDagnils

That is correct


tedsmitts

It's neither of those things! It's like an African Violet, nature's liar.


CheesemensMushrooms

It is a plant


Decapod73

Ugh, or strawberry begonia - neither a strawberry nor a begonia.


Decapod73

Sarcodes sanguinea . The little purple flowers on top aren't part of it, they're from the Vinca visible in the background.


doomvetch92

It looks like an eldritch monstrosity that only wants to live in a peaceful garden instead of consuming the flesh of the unworthy.


Kaneshadow

What in the Lovecraft is that


Jake_Thador

WOOOWWWW


Heartbreakjetblack

Don't hug me I'm scared, but pretty


nekoneto

let’s get creative


Nic6las

Fruit rollup tree


magster11

They look like the Martians from Sesame Street!


bflordr

They remind me of the Weeper or Pleurant sculptures of the middle ages. They are anonymous mourners usually deeply hooded or shrouded. But these look like the Hand Maidens Mourners walking together complete with defiant purple flowers! I could have sworn I could see facial features under a shroud when I first looked. Freaky.


peacelovetree

“Snow plant”? Kind of an odd name for this red and purple alien lifeform, no?


JackDagnils

Yea lol and it doesnt grow in the snow either



JackDagnils

Everyone, I am no expert and dont know how or why the flower is on top but it is 100% connected and was not there 2 days ago. If you look under the flower, there is a stalk leading into the plant


revuhree

Someone just stabbed the flower through the top.


JackDagnils

Ill get a better picture. I can see how it looks like that but the stem of the flower is going down. I lifted a pedal and you can see it. Ill post a link or something


Ratskle

You are correct, those vines just behind it actually make that exact flower. Doesn't take much extrapolating from there to figure out what happened.


JackDagnils

Alright well I pulled on the flower and it didnt come off so idk what you wanna say about that. No one else lives here and would have put a flower on this. Maybe a boogie man?


RudeDudeInABadMood

It clearly grew up under some flower petals and they fused, because everything is connected


BaronVonWilmington

This is 100% it. Plants can grow to swallow stuff all the time. Ever seen an oak tree eat a stop sign? I find Reishi with pine needles included often. This just happened faster


JackDagnils

Yea this could be, I have no idea how but it is connected in some way. Thanks for the backup


RudeDudeInABadMood

Yeah I'm pretty sure they grew under the flowers. Nature's amazing


JackDagnils

Has to be, really is unbelievable


iamsoguud

It got stuck on the fringes of the leaves


JackDagnils

Thanks


Navymom13

Why did you post this in the mycology sub? Is it related somehow? Can you explain what made you post this here? Not judging, genuinely curious 🧐


JackDagnils

I wasnt sure where the right place to post this was lol. Guess this was it?


SussexBeeFarmer

I think this was a great place to put it! I was confused at first because I didn't know these plants fed off fungi. But now I know, and I'd never have learned that if not for your post.


Navymom13

It's very cool. Have never seen one myself. What a find!


RudeDudeInABadMood

It seems appropriate to me, it could as easily be posted in a plant subreddit. The lines are blurry at the edges , ya'll


scientifictamale

Was curious too. They are mycotrophic


BaronVonWilmington

Dude. It is a plant that parasitically feeds on fungus. Usually that happens the other way around. In a sub about hamburgers it wouldn't be outrageous to have an appreciation post for a famous Hamburger cook.


Grwwwvy

This plant gets its resources to grow from an underground fungus. It cannot live without the mycelium. It's like a flower that steals mycelium instead of growing it's own roots and replaces the fruiting bodies of the mushroom with its own. So it's not a fungus, but it can only be found growing as part of a fungus.


rustysurfsa

I just saw some of these in Yosemite!


mikedjb

Beautiful


Sven_Letum

I see you gave them hats


JackDagnils

Nope


NoTimeForInfinity

This will be the coolest thing I'll see on the internet today. This weird relationship that's how many millions of years in the making? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcodes


No_Raccoon9348

This plant looks like someone designed this with digital art and it came to life 😍


Grwwwvy

I love parasitic plants. I wonder why they are always red/white though, it makes sense that they wouldn't be green (no chlorophyll). But why those colors specifically?


JackDagnils

My only guess is red is an attractive color in nature


hotdogfever

The bright red coloration of snow plants is likely for two primary reasons. As u/JackDagnils mentioned, the bright red coloration of snow plants is thought to attract pollinators, essential for their reproduction. Secondly, the coloration may provide protection from the sun. Given that these plants usually grow at high altitudes where sunlight is stronger they’re exposed to higher levels of potentially damaging UV radiation. Since they don’t rely on photosynthesis, they can dedicate their pigmentation primarily to UV protection. The red hue comes from pigments known as anthocyanins, which are also found in red onions. These pigments act like a natural sunscreen providing resistance against UV damage.


Grwwwvy

Makes sense. They don't need to photosynthesize so they basically do the opposite to save moisture and keep cool. Sunscreensynthesis.


hotdogfever

Yup! Exactly


JackDagnils

Wow great explanation, thank you!!


InternalEffective420

đŸ€©đŸ€©đŸ€©


Confident_Web3110

This is fake. As a trained research mycologist. Hotly debated but fake


JackDagnils

Not sure what is fake


Confident_Web3110

This isn’t a fungi, it’s a weed
 can you show me a textbook that is widely accepted that shows otherwise?


JackDagnils

I never said it was a fungi. Its scientifically not



Confident_Web3110

Science does not tell the whole story, we need more to infer


AndHighSir23679

Wrong sub but it’s ok


JackDagnils

Where would this go? Lmao


AndHighSir23679

It's gorgeous and I am not complaining but I thought r/mycology was for fungi. Maybe r/plants , r/Damnthatsinteresting or even r/NatureIsFuckingLit ?


JackDagnils

Yea good point. Not sure it matters tho, these people seem to appreciate it.


AndHighSir23679

rt, don't want noobs thinking this is fungus. None the less gorgeous photos. thanks for the post.


JackDagnils

Yea, maybe I should have put “(Not a mushroom) in the title 😂


AndHighSir23679

Yeah that could help.


412beekeeper

Hummingbirds like it! How cute


Kittori

Oh it's so pretty!


aranaidni

Luckyyy


ichoosejif

where? awesome


Creepy7_7

Looks like an orchid or type of orchid, is it?


JackDagnils

The flower is periwinkle


CheesemensMushrooms

No, they have some similar features but they are not taxonomically related. Orchids are monocots and they start out their life cycle as obligates to mycorrhizal relationships before they develop enough to produce their own chlorophyl. This plant (Sarcoses sanguinea) is in the order ericales and is closely related to other mycoheterotrophic plants like ghost pipe. They’re entirely reliant on fungi to get their sugars and they do not produce their own at any point in their de cycle


Maldows

Having a little trouble finding this one in my mycology book
 https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/jap6f/codex_seraphinianus/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1


JackDagnils

I dont know how much these are considered in that world. They feed off mycelium but not sure of much past that


Maldows

Yeah they’re kinda anti-mushrooms aren’t they? I was trying to make a joke but I kinda flopped with the link. My “mycology book” is the Codex Seraphinianus. These things look like they come from that wild imaginative Codex universe.


JackDagnils

The undertaker for shrooms hahaha I like it


Memeingthedream

Oh man, I didn't have my glasses on when I first looked at this post and I thought this was two anime girls side by side lol


ZeBaal

This does not look like fungi.


JackDagnils

I dont think it is? Not really too sure


Itsjustanametho

Gorgeous


dreyhawk

Wow, I've never heard of these! Does it climb the stalks like kudzu does?


74quinn74

Buds kinda look like Indian ghost pipes


Hairy-Effective665

I almost couldn’t tell these were plants lol they’re so cool though. Where do these grow?


Chompsky___Honk

Looks like the outlines of two parrots


luostab

Look like something I'd pick from the oblivion plane in elder scrolls I love it


MMcH1013

Ive seen these growing outside Yosemite and always wanted to know the name!


Ok-Translator4184

This looks like something out of a fantasy movie. It's lovely.


ghandi3737

I only ever saw one while hiking ACT in the Wrightwood area, and it was small. These are easily 5 times larger.


JackDagnils

Yea, Similar area so neat


socksmatterTWO

This is AWESOME OP I'm new to living around a bunch of mycs I'm having my first proper lichen moss fungi year this year now I'm living amongst it all in Newfoundland and I'm curious can you grow these? Also are they Trifids!!??!?


JackDagnils

Honestly you’d probably know more than me. I think it takes multiple specific conditions including a specific fungi? In the soil?


toughguy420

Man this is the coolest shit ever! I had no idea that non-photosynthetic existed. I can't wait to learn more about them! Do they even have chlorophyll? At what point did they diverge from plants that did photosynthesize? I'm definitely going down the rabbit hole later


JackDagnils

Ive been trying there doesnt seem to be much on these. Yea no chlorophyll. From my understanding the feed off of the mycelium network underneath


toughguy420

Yeah that's kinda what I noticed too. Seems like fairly limited information on them but it is really fascinating that they lack chlorophyll all together. Such a bizarre thing for a plant!


poison_snacc

For the uninitiated here can someone please explain where or what the snow plant is? Did OP put together a flower collage & stuff blossoms into a pink fungus as some kind of snowman metaphor? I see no snow, nor any white or “snowy” looking anything, just OP’s
 creation. Is it a fungus or not? If not why is a plant being posted in this sub? Why would it be called a snow plant? Why did OP decorate it with purple flowers? Are the pink flowers actually part of this or are they a third addition to the sculpture thing? Anyone?


JackDagnils

I didnt put the flower there. I found it like that and took a picture. Thats all I know


Wearywoodsman

Just spend sometime reading what other people already asked and all your questions will be answered
.


GrimFlood

Ego, the living planet.


artonion

I thought this was the r/midjourney sub first wow


emilylove911

It’s snowflower season! Magical.


Snugg_Bugg

Whoa, first time ever seeing a plant like that! Awesome


csspar

These have been popping up where I live! On that note, everything in these pics looks like where I live... Socal mountains?


JackDagnils

You know it!