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 73 saprophyte DHJanzen100331.jpg high resolution
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| Only very few plants have abandoned both making (or catching - see below) their own food and being parasitic or trading for it with a mutualist, to become true saprophytes - feeding entirely on forest floor litter - dead tissues and detritus from the canopy above. Here, a Cameroun rainforest deep understory saprophytic plant (about 50 cm tall) flowers in the nearly sunless shade. It is believed that this plant gets all its nutrients, including the carbohydrates, by decomposing fallen litter. However, it is also possible that it cheats a bit by being parasitic on roots or having a mutualism with a fungus (remember, fungi are NOT plants, but rather a totally different set of organisms, as different from plants as are animals - despite the fact that botanists like to collect fungi and keep them in their herbaria). | ||
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