Towering coastal redwoods, the rolling green hills immortalized as the Windows operating system background – open spaces in the Bay Area are known for their lush greenness. Most plants contain chlorophyll, the green pigment that allows plants to absorb energy from sunlight. That energy is then converted, along with using water and carbon dioxide, into chemical energy in the form of glucose (sugar).
Not all plants in the Bay Area use photosynthesis to created nutrients. Hiking in the Silicon Valley area, you might notice some plants that stick out because they lack the typical green leafed structure we are used to seeing in the area’s vegetation.
These “achlorophyllous” plants fall into two broad ecological strategies:
- Holoparasites – plants that tap directly into another plant’s roots or stems with specialized organs called haustoria and withdraw water, sugars, and minerals.
- Mycoheterotrophs – plants that connect to the underground network of mycorrhizal fungi and siphon carbohydrates that the fungi originally obtained from photosynthetic trees.
Here are a few of the plants that can be seen in the Bay Area that don’t use photosynthesize to get their nutrients.
Striped coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata)
Family: Orchidaceae
- Appearance: A leafless maroon or yellow‑red stalk 15–45 cm tall, bearing rows of speckled orchid flowers.
- Host: Mycoheterotrophic—ties into the same mycorrhizal fungi that live on conifer roots; sugars ultimately come from Douglas‑fir, redwood, or tanoak.
- Where to look: Shady redwood–Douglas‑fir forests in Marin, Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo Counties; often in duff near fallen logs.
- Flowering window: May–August.
Although an orchid, coralroot never forms true leaves and has no green tissue. The plant devotes its short above‑ground life to flowering and seed production, relying on fungal partners year‑round for energy.
Albino coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens, albino form)
Family: Cupressaceae (cypress family)
- Appearance: Sprays of ivory‑white needles growing from the base or branches of a normal redwood; resembles a ghostly shrub or pale offshoot.
- Host: The parent redwood tree, connected through naturally grafted roots that supply water and sugars.
- Where to look: Rare and scattered; known locations include Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Huddart and Wunderlich Parks (San Mateo County), and the Santa Lucia Preserve near Carmel. Fewer than 400 individuals have been documented range‑wide.
- Flowering window: Non‑flowering; white foliage visible year‑round, with fresh growth most noticeable in late spring and early summer.
While not a separate species, albino coastal redwoods are the result of a genetic mutation where the redwood tree produces no chlorophyll. Instead, the leaves are pale, almost white in appearance. This has earned these redwood trees are more popularly nicknamed “ghost trees” or “ghost redwoods”.
These albino trees are found close to full grown coastal redwoods in a relationship known as intraspecific parasitism, a type of holoparasitism. To survive, albino redwoods syphon sugars from normal host redwood trees through interconnected root systems since they are unable to make their own food from sunlight.
Researcher Zane Moore believes that the relationship is symbiotic. Albino redwood shoots have higher concentrations of heavy metals than their green counterparts as a result of poor stomata control by the albino plants. Moore theorized that albino plants serve as a reservoir for cadmium, copper, and nickel in exchange for sugars from healthy redwood trees.
Salt‑marsh dodder (Cuscuta salina)
Family: Convolvulaceae (morning‑glory family)
- Appearance: Tangled, spaghetti‑like orange or yellow threads draped over pickleweed, gum‑plant, or other salt‑marsh shrubs; minute white flowers.
- Host: A range of halophytic (salt‑tolerant) marsh plants.
- Where to look: Tidal marsh margins of San Francisco Bay—China Camp State Park, Palo Alto Baylands, Eden Landing, and similar reserves.
- Flowering window: Late spring through early autumn; easiest to spot in midsummer when its color deepens.
Dodder seedlings germinate on the soil but quickly abandon a root system once their stem locates and twines around a host. Haustorial pads penetrate the host stem, after which the dodder’s own root withers away, leaving a leafless vine nourished entirely by the host’s sap. Its bright color makes it one of the most conspicuous non‑photosynthetic plants on the Bay shoreline.
