It was exciting to come across a plant in the woods this fall that I’ve only seen a couple times before. It’s a flowering plant with no chlorophyll and it’s not a fungus.
I’ve always called them Indian Pipes but I like the name they go by in the South: Ghost Pipes.
Can you believe it’s a member of the blueberry family? Personally, I don’t see any family resemblance!
Notice anything missing besides the color green? Pipes have no leaves because they don’t make chlorophyll. They need no light for the same reason.
To sustain their short lives, they “network” with the fungus (mycorrhiza) that roots of trees are using to obtain the minerals trees need to conduct photosynthesis. While the tree doesn’t seem to benefit at all from the pipes, the pipes don’t seem to damage the trees either.
As the plant matures, “flowers”, or seed heads, form at the top.
Looking down into the seed heads below, you can that they have emptied and soon the whole plant will turn black and melt back into the earth below it.
Waxy and white, eerie and haunting, the Corpse Plant was the favorite flower of one of my favorite American poets — Emily Dickinson. So much so, in fact, that it graced the cover of her first published book of poetry.
“February, that Month of Fleetest Sweetness”
White as an Indian Pipe
Red as a Cardinal Flower
Fabulous as a Moon at Noon
February Hour—
Very interesting plant! I know we have some in Minnesota in wet areas but I have never seen them ...they may have a short time before they melt to nothing:)
ReplyDeleteHow interesting. It doesn't grow in the UK, but we have a similar plant called Toothwort which is white and grows on the roots of hazel trees. Interestingly it's also known as Corpse Plant.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen anything like this plant. Corpse Plant suits it very well.
ReplyDeletethey were called Peace Pipes where I grew up just 20 miles North of NYC...
ReplyDeleteI've seen this plant many times but didn't know much about it.
ReplyDeleteNever seen it before and never heard of it - but it's interesting and something very different to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and do take care.
I have never come across this type of plant before, most interesting.
ReplyDeleteA strange plant I have never seen. A kind of albino between the others.
ReplyDeleteI am quite sure I have never seen this unique component of the forest ecosystem, and now I want to!
ReplyDeleteWhat fascinating plants/fungi. I don't think I've ever seen one in the woods.
ReplyDeleteWhat an unusual plant. Surely we have them here but I don't remember ever seeing anything like that. Your writing about it makes it even more interesting. Sure would love to have been in some of your classes, back when you were still teaching.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm thinking I'm seriously out of touch with my blueberries - they are mega expensive here in Thailand! What a weird as in fascinating plant! Have a lovely day
ReplyDeleteWren x
I've never seen that pipe here in bluff country perhaps it grows in the pine forests of Minnesota's far north?
ReplyDeleteWow what an unusual plant. It sure does sound similar to a fungus.
ReplyDeleteRare and precious, and how lucky to find them! My first thought is they must be a fungus. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting! I've never seen it. I guess the center of the flower kind of has the color of a blueberry. We have corpse plants at our botanic garden.
ReplyDelete