the above photograph - ©SmcK 29Apr'15
Indian Pipe—
Summer Ghost of the Forest
By Carol Gracie
Page 1
While enjoying a summer
walk in the cool of the forest, your eye might be drawn to something white on
the ground, especially in the deep shade of pines, oaks, beeches, or hemlocks. A
quick glance could lead you to believe that you’ve found a strange fungus, but a
closer look will show that it is a true flower, albeit an unusual one. This
white apparition has appropriately been called ghost flower, corpse plant, or
more commonly, Indian pipe. Indian pipe is descriptive of the shape of the plant
with its flower curved downward so that it faces the ground. The scientific
name, Monotropa uniflora, is also appropriate meaning “once-turned,
single flower.” Each stalk bears just a solitary flower that turns upward after
pollination and remains that way as the fruit develops. It has also been known
as bird’s nest for the appearance of its mass of short, blunt roots, and ghost
flower and corpse plant, referring to the white, waxy appearance of the plant.
Indian pipe is a plant that lacks the green pigment called chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll is necessary for photosynthesis, the process whereby plants
manufacture their own food (photosynthate) in the presence of sunlight. Lacking
chlorophyll, Indian pipe is unable to produce its own food and therefore has no
need for true leaves which are replaced by small scales along the stem. It is
able to inhabit the darkest areas of the forest where sunlight is in short
supply. Plants may grow as a single stem or in clumps of up to 20 stems, but
they are not generally found in large number
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