Monotropa uniflora, also known as the Ghost Plant, Ghost Flower, Indian Pipe, Ice-plant or Corpse Plant. This unusual flora can be found glowing in very dark environments, as in the understory of dense woods. It blooms for a week only after a good rain fall.
Unlike most plants, it is ghostly white and does not contain chlorophyll. Instead of generating energy from sunlight, it is parasitic. Its hosts are certain fungi from photosynthetic trees. The plant may provide an essential balance in nature to other shrubs or trees. The complex relationship that allows this plant to grow also makes propagation difficult. It may be illegal to pick this flower.
In the early 19th Century, a New England writer Alice Morse Earle once said, "It is the weirdest flower that grows, so palpably ghastly that we feel almost a cheerful satisfaction in the perfection of its performance & our own responsive thrill, just as we do in a good ghost story." And ghost stories it indeed inspired, in the writings: Stories of Enchantment: or The Ghost Flower.
The Indians used the Ice-plant for relieving affections of the eyes. This plant is one of value in herbal medicine.
Photo of Monotropa uniflora, found on Camp Lion, tangled within other green shrubbery.
In the early 19th Century, a New England writer Alice Morse Earle once said, "It is the weirdest flower that grows, so palpably ghastly that we feel almost a cheerful satisfaction in the perfection of its performance & our own responsive thrill, just as we do in a good ghost story." And ghost stories it indeed inspired, in the writings: Stories of Enchantment: or The Ghost Flower.
The Indians used the Ice-plant for relieving affections of the eyes. This plant is one of value in herbal medicine.
Photo of Monotropa uniflora, found on Camp Lion, tangled within other green shrubbery.
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