Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, June 25, 2007
Parasitic Plants
This is cool. I had never seen this before, except in photographs, but I knew immediately what it was because it's on the cover of one of my most useful wildflower books. Indian Pipes, aka Ghost Plant, aka Monotropa uniflora is a parasitic plant, getting its living not on the roots of other plants, as was once believed, but on the mycorrhizae attached to the roots of other plants. This site does a wonderful job of explaining it all.
I found this plant while checking up on my Illicium floridanum (one of which is doing fine, BTW). It had probably been flowering for a while, because according to missouriplants.com, the flowers open white and darken as they age.
Labels: CeVA, wildflowers
6 Comments:
I remember seeing these in the woods around my parents place, years ago - aren't they interesting? I had forgotten about them - so post was a very nice surprise!
Wow, you have all the interesting plants at your place. I remember seeing Indian pipes in my little wildflower book and always wanted to plant some but didn't know where to buy them. I hope you keep taking pictures as they emerge.
We ran into them in a forest outside Seattle a few years ago. Like you, I felt that pleasurable shock of recognition, meeting in person what had been noticed in a wildflower book - very cool, entangled!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
All: Well, they're definitely different. All kinds of unexpected things are turning up at the country house.
We have these in New Jersey - they love the acidic, sandy soil in the Pine Barrens. They're not tremendously attractive.
How neat! I have these, too...I think they are really cool looking! No sign of them this year, though...I think it's too dry.
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