Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery

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Indian Pipe

We often speak of immigrant or imported flora as "alien." This ghostly white lily, although native to this continent, is so weird in appearance that one might suspect it to be really alien—as in ET: not of this planet!

But, although it does appear to be some type of mushroom or fungus, this is a perennial wildflower.

But it does have one major difference from other lilies  in the Gallery: Indian Pipe is the first wildflower we've considered that doesn't use chlorophyll and photosynthesis to produce energy from sunlight.

It receives its food through a dependant, symbiotic relationship with certain fungi that inhabit the moist, fertile humus found in leaf litter.

(Another wildflower that displays a most unusual "blossom" is Jack-in-the-Pulpit.)

The most popular common name for this relatively rare plant is Indian Pipe, but it has also been dubbed Ghost Plant, Corpse Plant, Ice Plant, Ghost Flower, Ghost Pipe and Fairy Smoke, depending on the locale in North America. 

I'm pleased to have found this fascinating little surprise while rambling in a shady forest one afternoon in June.

Any thoughts, pro or con? Why not drop me an anonymous note at the Comments page?

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Go back to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.