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While hiking on a beautiful spring or summer day at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, you might find what looks like pink asparagus growing out of the ground. This plant may look like it came straight from a Dr. Suess book, but it is actually an orchid! Specifically, this is a coralroot orchid—its name derived from the resemblance its root system bears to ocean corals. All coralroot orchids are pink in color because they don’t produce any chlorophyll. Instead, they are myco-heterotrophic, meaning they get all of the nutrients they need through parasitism of mycorrhizal fungi from nearby autotrophic plants. Because coralroot orchids do not photosynthesize, they do not need to produce leaves—hence their asparagus-like appearance.  

Six species of coralroot orchids in the Hexalectris genus have been documented in Texas, and two of these species can be found here at Wild Basin: the crested coralroot (Hexalectris spicata) and the glass mountain crested coralroot (Hexalectris nitida). 

For successful pollination, the crested coralroot relies on pollinators, such as bumble bees. 

The glass mountain crested coralroot, on the other hand, is completely self-pollinated, so it’s rare to see this species blooming. Although the range of H. spicata spans across the southern U.S. and up into Ohio, it is still very uncommon to see this species in the wild. H. nitida has only been documented in Texas and Oklahoma. Given that these species are fairly rare in both their ranges and population size, little research has been conducted to determine their most suitable growing conditions. However, there is great interest among naturalists and conservationists throughout Texas in furthering the research. 

Certified Master Naturalist and long-time volunteer, John Barr, has been following the populations of these two species at Wild Basin over the last several years. This past summer, we began collecting data on eight clusters of H. nitida we located within the preserve to better understand the habitat requirements and suitable growing conditions for coralroot orchids. We took weekly measurements to track the species’ bloom time, documented the vegetation surrounding each cluster (since they rely on nutrients from nearby plants to grow), and measured the canopy cover percentage. Our goal is to turn this project into a long-term monitoring program, and we plan to start a similar project for H. spicata in the spring when that species starts flowering. With the insights gained, we aim to preserve these rare, beautiful, and fascinating orchids within Wild Basin.