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Friday, June 11, 2010

Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora)

The wonderfully strange and ghostly plant above is commonly called Indian Pipe, Ghost Plant or Corpse Plant (Monotropa uniflora) and it has long been number 1 on my list of wildflowers I want to see. So I am sharing this photo with you today with a definite sense of satisfaction since I first encountered these in a forest near Victoria yesterday. Despite their appearance they are NOT a kind of fungi or mushroom. They are a flowering plant that lives from decaying plant matter rather than through the use of chlorophyll and photosynthesis. When I wander around in the forest I am usually looking for something specific because that provides a focus. Yesterday I was hoping to encounter a deer because, though I have seen several this year, I have not yet photographed one. I was also glancing around on the lookout for local orchids and for Indian Pipe, without much hope of seeing the latter because the forest floor where I was walking was quite well lighted and I had always pictured this plant as growing in the dimness beneath a dense rain forest canopy. Suddenly I saw one poking up above the moss. Then I saw the rest and realized I was in the midst of a grove of them, dozens of them all around me.


ps: I DID see a deer later - but that's tomorrow's photo.

8 comments:

Pedro D. H. said...

it's like a bean!

Jabba said...

NO way. This was my #1 plant that I wanted to see as well, I did a happy dance when I first saw one a couple years ago. I was under the impression that they didn't come out until later in the summer! Where did you see this one, I'd love to stand in a grove of them!!

Benjamin Madison said...

Jabba, I went into happy dance mode too (but muted because I suddenly felt like I was standing on a bunch of babies). I saw these out at Fort Rodd Hill - not in the park proper but maybe a hundred meters from the roadside on the way into the park. They're not even on a path so I can't be more precise. I think you're right about later - most of the "grove" were just visible about to poke through the moss so it would be about another week or so until they are standing up properly. They're such a classy plant!

Benjamin Madison said...

And Pedro, you're right, it does look like a bean plant just coming out of the ground - but the one above is a fully grown plant - the bent over part is the flower in bloom - and it's never going to get green - as it gets older it turns black!

Michelle said...

What an interesting flower - I have never seen one before in our woods! I will certainly look out for them now. Beautiful photo and thank you for sharing with us. Let's hope for a bit of sunshine on our wet coast. Michelle

Dean Lewis said...

Great serendipitous experience.
'Luck'is when preparation meets opportunity.

Kim said...

This is amazing, and thank you for introducing me to these. Your shot is so wonderful. Congrats on such a wonderful "notch" on your "I want to see and capture it" belt. This plant serves as metaphor for several things. Inspiration for a poet, maybe.
-Kim

JoJo said...

As the Dead would say, 'once in awhile you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right!'

but it still looks like fungi. ;p