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Where Ghastly Ghost Plants and Copperheads Thrive!

© Renie Burghardt

The strangest looking wildflower in my woods is often called Ghost Plant, Corpse Plant and Convulsion Plant, and it likes to grow in the deepest part of the woods, where copperhead snakes also like to hang out! But the common name for this wildflower is Indian pipe, scientific name Monotropa uniflora.

The first time I saw Indian pipe, I was a newcomer to these woods, exploring everything with wild abandon. It was early fall, and I was enchanted by the changing colors, the numerous ferns still thriving on the floor of the forest, the crunching leaves under my feet, the musky scents-all a paradise for a nature lover transplanted here from the city. Then I saw it, a strange, pearly-white looking cluster, with white, nodding bell shaped flowers on top, growing out of the leaf mold of the forest.

I had never seen anything like it before, so I sat down on the floor next to them and began looking through my wildflower book. "Ah, there it is. Indian pipe," I said to myself excitedly, when my eyes noticed some sort of a movement just a few feet from where I sat. I glanced in that direction, and saw it, a snake! But not just any snake. A copperhead snake! He was motionless, except for his tongue, darting in and out, checking me out. Yikes!

I jumped up, and grabbing my book, and a piece of Indian pipe, quickly began retreating in a direction away from the snake. I kept glancing back to see if he was following me, but he wasn't, so I finally stopped and looked at the plant in my hand. It had turned a horrible shade of black-gray and was oozing a clear, ghastly slimy substance, like a rotting piece of meat! I threw it on the ground in disgust, and began sprinting towards the house, which was quite a distance from where I had wandered. Once at home, I opened the book again, to find out more about my unusual find. Since then, I have seen Indian pipe in those deep woods several times, including this year. It is still thriving in that copperhead territory!

Monotropa uniflora from the Latin means "once turned" and "single flowered," referring to the fact that the flowers, facing the ground in early life, turn straight upward, as if proud to be inpregnated with seeds. Although Indian pipe is an albino plant, containing no chlorophyll, it is closely related to the dogwoods, heaths, evergreen laurels and rhododendrons. A native wild flower, it grows from Maine to Florida, and from Washington to California into Mexico, and has a range across southern Canada and into Alaska. Globally, Indian pipe also inhabits parts in Japan and even reaches the Himalayas.