Indian Pipe or Corpse Flower,
Monotropa uniflora
Ericaceae or Heath Family
(formerly in the Wintergreen Family)
 |
An odd low plant, with a single, nodding, pure
white (sometimes pinkish) flower on a white stem with white oval
scales. No leaves. Fruit a woody capsule. The
fruit points upward; the nodding flower turns up as it changes
to a fruit. Blooms in the summer. A native parasite of underground fungi. It spends most of the year hidden underground sucking nourishment vampire-like from the fungi, only poking above ground to flower and produce seeds. A unique plant in Wildwood. Pinesap is a similar relative, but yellow or red, with several flowers on each stem. It has not been reported from Wildwood.
|