For those of you craving more current events commentary, here’s a news flash: Indian Pipe is blooming in the woods of southern New Hampshire.
Also known as Corpse Plant, Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is one of my favorite late summer flowers. Although it’s not bright and colorful to look at, I’m always charmed by its ghostly appearance: small clusters of waxy white stalks stationed under trees or in the shelter of stone walls. More common than ghosts, Indian Pipe is just as difficult to photograph. Over the last week alone, I’ve taken a half dozen pictures of Indian Pipe–some at Goose Pond (above), and others at Pisgah State Park (right)–and the photo at right is the only one that does the plant justice. Because it flowers in late summer well after the forest canopy has closed, Indian Pipe lives in perpetual shadow. If you photograph a cluster of Indian Pipe with a flash, they look unnaturally wan against an overlit backdrop; if you forego the flash, you capture only unrecognizable blurs. The photo at right “works” because this average-sized cluster of Indian Pipe was sprouting by a spot of light which naturally illuminates its leaf-litter surroundings.
Since Indian Pipe lacks the green pigment chlorophyll, it cannot produce its own food from sunlight the way that other plants do. Most flower guides label Indian Pipe a saprophyte–a plant that lives off dead matter–but the reality is a bit more complicated. Indian Pipe not only lacks chlorophyll, it also lacks the enzymes and digestive “juices” that allow fungi to break down and digest dead wood. As a result, Indian Pipe relies upon certain species of fungus (in particular, those which produce Russula and Lactarius mushrooms), which in turn rely upon certain species of trees. In other words, Indian Pipe grows at the end of a parasitic chain, tapping its roots into the underground mycelial network of fungi that themselves tap into tree roots. The fungus takes nutrients from the tree, and the Indian Pipe takes nutrients from the fungus.
Because of this complicated way of getting a meal, Indian Pipe doesn’t grow just anywhere. It’s common at Goose Pond here in Keene and in the woods around Kilburn Pond in Pisgah State Park, but I haven’t (yet) seen it growing in the woods along the Ashuelot River. (Curiously, the Pickerelweed that is so abundant along the Ashuelot is all but entirely absent from both Goose and Kilburn Ponds.) Like springtime Lady’s Slippers, late summer Indian Pipe is choosy about where it plants its heels: here and now you’ll see it; then and there you won’t. Just like a ghost, Indian Pipe comes and goes of its own accord, almost invariably carrying an element of surprise within its ghostly white stems.
Jul 25, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Nice! Do you have the other similar plant there too – I think it’s called Pinesap?
I’ve never managed to see either one. But maybe because I don’t go hiking much in July. π
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Jul 25, 2005 at 4:21 pm
I think I am a human indian pipe. Certainly sometimes I feel that I am at the end of a long parasitic chain π
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Jul 25, 2005 at 8:39 pm
Rurality, I’ve never seen Pinesap, so I don’t know if we have it. Back in Ohio, we had Beechdrops and Squawroot, both of which are parasitic on tree roots, but I can’t recall ever seeing either one here in New Hampshire.
I guess now I’ll be on perpetual lookout for all three! (Rest assured I’ll blog if I find ’em!)
Dale, I laughed at your comment. But, are you the *parasite,* or the *victim* of parasite-age? π
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Jul 25, 2005 at 9:06 pm
Beautiful photos. I live in NOrthern California and the Redwoods around here are slowly being destroyed along with all the little treasures that live in it. Just makes me think about all we will miss in 20 yrs from now.
Peace!!
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Jul 26, 2005 at 12:59 am
Lorianne… Your post makes me miss the woods of West Va! I used to have horses, and this time of year we would be riding every afternoon on the trails. Now, I ride in the back seat of a cab! Almost as exciting!
Anyway, thanks so much for your get well wishes for my dad over the weekend. I REALLY appreciated your kind words. He’s doing much better. You are truly a doll! xox
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Jul 26, 2005 at 8:56 am
hi lorianne, that top picture is just beautiful. i long to see a lake that still, it is a proper postcard picture!
I had never heard of those flowers before, but they are gorgeous too, as you say, so ghostly. I’m glad you managed to get a good photo of them!
hope all is well,
take care
Rach
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Jul 26, 2005 at 12:25 pm
I love Indian Pipe – strangely and hauntingly beautiful. I’d never heard of it and certainly never seen anything at all like it. It has definitely joined my list of things I want to see some day.
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Jul 26, 2005 at 2:23 pm
Gee, Lorianne, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were camping out in the backwoods of Sault Ste. Marie! It amazes me how familiar the Keene landscape is. Maybe that’s why I love your pics so much?
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Jul 26, 2005 at 10:03 pm
Indian Pipe. OOh, love that plant. I’ve seen it only twice.
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Jul 27, 2005 at 4:20 pm
If it’s any consolation, Michael Paul, the forests here in NH were mostly *pasture* a century ago, so even forests can renew themselves (eventually) if given a long enough chance.
Last Girl, I *knew* there was a country girl somewhere underneath all that Big City sophistication & attitude! π
Rach, had you been in Keene in the summer, surely someone would have taken you to Goose Pond, where I took that picture. Although swimming isn’t allowed, virtually EVERYONE goes swimming there anyway. π
Jean, Indian Pipe is one of those odd curiosities you read about: a flowering plant without chlorophyll. It’s as if the Powers That Be decided to create at least one Oddity in every class of creatures (e.g. egg laying mammals, deciduous conifers, etc.)
Les, without having a map in front of me, I’m wondering whether southern NH is at roughly the same latitude as Sault Sainte Marie? I know NH is enough further north than central Ohio that we have different plants here than the ones I knew when I grew up…but maybe you & I are in a similar climatic zone?
Pearl, if you were in NH right now, you’d see Indian Pipe everywhere…at least if you went walking in the particular woods where it grows! π
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