''Boschniakia rossica'', commonly known as the northern groundcone, is a

holoparasitic A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

plant that lives in the northern latitudes of the northern hemisphere. In the Pacific Northwest Temperate Rainforest, it does not grow south of Prince of Wales Island, beyond that boundary is the Vancouver groundcone habitat. It does not contain chlorophyll, so it must be parasitic to obtain nutrients. It specializes on ''Alnus'' species, but can parasitize off of other trees and shrubs such as on ''Betula'' (birch), ''Salix'' (willow), ''Vaccinium'' (blueberry), ''Picea'' (spruce), and ''Chamaedaphne'' (leatherleaf shrub). This organism is likely to be found at mid elevations alongside rivers and streams, where moisture is abundant. This species propagates itself through water flow. In some places bears are known to have eaten the starchy roots, or tubers, of this plant.

Morphology

''Boschniakia rossica'' grows between 6–12 inches, with two or three stems per individual. It has tall slender stalks. The roots grow horizontally from a main bulbous mass. It can vary from very dark maroon to reddish brown in color. This is a perennial plant, and flowers every summer. It can produce up to 300,000 seeds. ''B. rossica'' very much looks like a pine cone growing up out of the ground.

Common names

* Poque * Cao-cong-rong (China) * Oniku (Japan) * Orinamudcobusali (Korea) * Du’iinahshèe (Gwichya Gwich'in) * Doo’iinahshìh/Tsʼeedichi (Teetå'it Gwich'in) * Dotsonʼ ggooneeggeʼ (Koyukon, Lower & Central dialects) * Dotsonʼ chʼecheneʼ (Koyukon, Upper dialect) * Tulukkam nauligaafa (Inuit) * Uktschutsch (Kamtschadalis)

Taxonomy

Genetic analyses have been conducted on ''B. rossica'' to determine its phylogeny. There are many ways to phylogenetically classify ''B. rossica'', but scientists from Ohio State University have determined that the family Orobanchaceae is estimated to have originated about 52.2 million years ago. The strongest bootstrap support is for terminal clades. The most parsimonious tree of ''Boschniakia'' forms a grade with ''Conopholis'' and ''Epifagus'' as well as other species of ''Orobanche''. In this tree, ''Lindenbergia'' and ''Schwalbea'' are sister taxa. These are still hypotheses, and further research is being conducted. There are two

GenBank The GenBank sequence database is an open access, annotated collection of all publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein translations. It is produced and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI; a part ...

numbers referring to ''Boschniakia rossica'': AY911214, and rps2;ITS : DQ403779; AY911214.

Synonyms

The following species are considered synonyms to ''Boschniakia rossica'': *''Boschniakia glabra'' (C.A. Mey. ex Bong.) *''Orobanchae glabra'' (C.A. Mey. ex Bong.) Hook. *''Orobanchae rossica'' Cham. & Schltdl.

External links

''Boschniakia rossica'' on Orobanchaceae Wiki

''Boschniakia rossica'' on Project Noah

''Boschniakia rossica'' from the Flora of British Columbia

References

* * * * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q6048518 Flora of Alaska Flora of Canada Flora of China Flora of Northeast Asia Medicinal plants of Asia Medicinal plants of North America Orobanchaceae Parasitic plants Plants described in 1828 Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine Flora without expected TNC conservation status