Plants - Mexico

Pholisma Arenarium

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Plate 322

Plate 323 Plate 324

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Pholisma Arenarium: Sand foot, sand root

These photos were made in Mid-January 2003 at Playa San Agustinillo.

Several egg-shaped flower heads of the unusual sand plant (Pholisma arenarium). Each oval head produces numerous tiny lavender flowers - as can be seen in the photos above. The flowers usually turn rusty after a few days.

The root parasite, called sand plant or pholisma (Pholisma arenarium), has a fleshy, scaly, subterranean stem and growth habit similar to sand food. It produces a peculiar egg-shaped cluster of lavender flowers in sandy areas of the Colorado Desert, coastal sand dunes in California, and sandy beaches above high tide in Southern Mexico. Unlike sand food, its raw stems are not particularly flavorful or palatable, but the root, when well cooked, is edible.

The haustorial connection (haustorium) absorbs carbohydrates and amino acids manufactured by the photosynthetic host shrub. Other factors may also be involved in finding the host roots. The small seeds may move downward through the sand or may be buried by continually shifting sand dunes which are subsequently colonized by new host vegetation. They may also be carried deep into the sand by harvester ants and by rodents (kangaroo rats) that burrow into the dunes under host shrubs.