Indian Pipes

I found these Indian Pipes growing in a shady spot under some stately old beech trees. They are white and waxy with black flecks. And rare. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've found them growing in the wild. They are also called Ghost Plant.

According to the Morgan Library and Museum, this was the favorite flower of the poet Emily Dickinson. She wrote a poem that begins: 'Tis whiter than an Indian Pipe, 'Tis paler than a lace.

Look like mushrooms, don't they? They are not. They're flowering plants, but they don't have chlorophyll. Instead of making their food photosynthetically, they take it parasitically from fungi that grow around tree roots. (Those fungi essentially exchange minerals and moisture from the soil for sugars produced by the tree.)

Each pipe stem has one downward facing flower. They are pollinated by flies and bees, and they make tiny seeds that are dispersed by the wind.