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, means “once-turned, single flower.” Each stalk bears a solitary flower that turns upward after pollination and remains that way as the fruit develops. The flower turns black with age or if picked.
Indian Pipe is a plant that lacks the green pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is necessary for photosynthesis, the process which allows plants manufacture their own food 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.
Indian Pipe fulfills its nutritional needs through the services of an intermediary fungus. The fungus forms a connection with Indian Pipe and nearby trees and transfers some of the photosynthate it derives from the tree roots to the Indian Pipe.
The ethereal appearance of the Indian Pipe, with its pallid stem topped by a nodding, white flower makes this “Summer ghost of the forest” perhaps the most easily identifiable wildflower.
