This is one of the more interesting plants on Cape Cod – it has no chlorophyll, and therefore no green leaves, so it cannot obtain energy from sunlight. Instead, it gets nutrients as follows:
In the leaves of a nearby tree, or photosynthesizing plant, carbon dioxide is turned into sucrose, which is transported to the roots. A fungus, feeding off the roots of the tree, takes the sucrose and transforms it into sugar alcohols, which are taken troughout  the fungal mycelium (some of these can be large – I believe the largest organism on the planet is a fungus many miles long). Poor tree, you say. Well, it’s not exactly like that – the fungus sometimes helps the tree with the absorption of water and essential minerals. As for the indian pipe – it absorbs the sugars from the fungus. Sometimes it does take three to tango!
I see Monotropa uniflora now and again in my woodland garden, but they are more prevalent in dark moist woods with lots of leaf litter. The walking trails in the Bridge Street conservation area off Route 149 have lots of indian pipe plants.
Leave a Reply