diversity Article Differing Life-History Strategies of Two Mycoheterotrophic Orchid Species Associated with Leaf Litter- and Wood-Decaying Fungi Yuki Ogura-Tsujita 1,2,* , Kenshi Tetsuka 3, Shuichiro Tagane 4, Miho Kubota 1, Shuichiro Anan 1, Yumi Yamashita 5 , Koichi Tone 6 and Tomohisa Yukawa 5 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University, 1 Honjyo-machi, Saga 840-8502, Japan;
[email protected] (M.K.);
[email protected] (S.A.) 2 The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Kagoshima University, 1-21-24 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-8580, Japan 3 Yakushima Evergreen Broad-Leaved Forest Network, Isso, Yakushima-machi, Kumage-gun, Kagoshima 891-4203, Japan;
[email protected] 4 The Kagoshima University Museum, 1-21-30 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan;
[email protected] 5 Tsukuba Botanical Garden, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan;
[email protected] (Y.Y.);
[email protected] (T.Y.) 6 Okinawa Municipal Museum, 2-19-6 Uechi, Okinawa 904-0031, Japan;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Mycoheterotrophic orchids depend completely on mycorrhizal fungi for their supply of carbon. The life-history traits of mycoheterotrophic plants (MHPs) can differ according to the characteristics of the associated mycorrhizal fungi. We compared the life-history strategies of two Citation: Ogura-Tsujita, Y.; Tetsuka, mycoheterotrophic orchids associated with wood- and leaf litter-decaying fungi over a maximum K.; Tagane, S.; Kubota, M.; Anan, S.; of six years of field monitoring. Seventy percent of the aboveground stems of Erythrorchis altissima, Yamashita, Y.; Tone, K.; Yukawa, T.