Indian Pipe Heads Up

Indian pipe, fertilized flowers, Ohiopyle, 1 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Indian pipe, fertilized flowers, Ohiopyle, 1 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

11 July 2015

Here are some pink flowers you don’t see every day.

Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is a parasite in a three-way relationship. It’s lives on a symbiotic fungus that gets its own food from tree roots in exchange for mineral nutrients.

Since Indian pipe doesn’t need chlorophyll the plant is ghostly white and can live in the deep shade of a dense forest.  When Indian pipe blooms the flowers droop downward.

Indian pipe blooming (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Indian pipe blooming (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

But as soon as they’re fertilized the flowers move into the heads up position.  Esther Allen taught us that this helps the plant disperse its seeds.

Most plants have erect flowers that nod when fertilized.  Indian pipe is backwards in many ways.

Learn more about Indian pipe in this article from the Arkansas Native Plant Society.

(heads up photo by Kate St. John. Heads down photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the photo to see the original)

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