#indian-pipe

[speakingofnature]

Indian-Pipe

Nature is inventive. Despite lacking chlorophyll, which plants utilize to absorb energy from light, the Indian-Pipe plant is able to survive. By using soil fungi and live tree roots this plant has figured out a way to thrive in shady conditions that many plants could not endure.

[speakingofnature]

Indian-Pipe

In the darkest of the woodland shadows, nature has developed an unorthodox way to secure the food supply that provides energy for a unique wildflower.

Lacking the chlorophyll needed to produce food, the Indian-Pipe is a parasitic flower that relies on fungi in the soil for food production.

[speakingofnature]

Beneath the canopy of tall trees in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, three small Indian-Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) plants push through the leaf litter where each displays a single colorless flower. Lacking chlorophyll, a substance essential for photosynthesis, these parasitic plants depend on fungi that grow in association with specific trees. With this in mind, these plants ultimately need the photosynthetic trees that also provide shade and the moist conditions which the Indian-Pipe prefers in order to emerge and bloom. Nature’s chains of connectedness are fashioned with a myriad of links that we are still trying to understand.

[speakingofnature]

The flowers of the Indian-Pipe (Monotropa uniflora), also called the Ghost Plant, are white and the leaves are translucent. Lacking chlorophyll this plant gets its energy through a parasitic relationship with fungi that are associated with trees. For this reason the Indian-Pipe needs no sunshine to grow and can be found in dense woods where little sunlight penetrates. This plant stood about 14 cm tall, while some grow to 30 cm. They are scarce while growing from early summer to early autumn.

[calochortus]

Indian Pipe At Chesapeake High School by Matthew Beziat Via Flickr: This is a picture of Indian Pipe in the woods behind the Athletic Fields at Chesapeake High School in Pasadena, Maryland. Gibson Island Quad

[kiwinana71]

Weekly Haiku Prompt Challenge – Week 3 – Under & Growth Weekly Haiku Prompt Challenge - Week 3 - Under & Growth Photo Credit - Indian-pipe is an "oddball" which feeds off the roots of coniferous trees.