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Monotropa uniflora
Also called Indian Pipe, Indianpipe, Ghost Plant, Convulsion Root, Ghostflower, One Flowered Indian Pipe, Ghost Pipes
Ghost pipe is a leafless, non-photosynthesizing parasitic plant that gets its nutrients from fungi linked to tree roots, not from sunlight. It cannot be grown like an ordinary garden plant and is best left in the wild.
Monotropa uniflora, also known as the American Indian ghost pipe plant (shortened to ghost plant, ghost pipe, American Indian pipe, or Indian pipe), is a herbaceous, parasitic, non-photosynthesizing, perennial flowering plant native to North America, Latin America, and East Asia but with large gaps between areas. The plant is waxy white, but some specimens have been described as having black flecks or pale pink coloration. Rare variants may have a deep red color. The name "Monotropa" is Greek for "one turn" and "uniflora" is Latin for "one flowered" as there is one sharply curved stem for each single flower. M. uniflora is commonly found growing in clumps of two or more, with its fungal source nearby.
The flowers of M. uniflora are visited by various bee and fly species, most commonly bumblebees. Bumblebees are an important pollen dispersal agent for the plant, crawling into the flower for pollen.
In addition to various reported traditional medicine uses, the plant has been used as an analgesic and anxiolytic in herbal medicine since the late 19th century. This may be due to the plant containing salicylic acid and grayanotoxins.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Monotropa uniflora by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
