What plant is not green, grows without leaves, turns black when you touch it and looks more like a mushroom than a plant? Indian pipe! Indian pipe contains no chlorophyll and gets its nutrients through a relationship with a fungus around its roots. Indian pipe’s flower points downward before it is fertilized. When seeds are forming it turns upward. That’s how it gets its genus name, Monotropa, which means “one turn.” In the fall and winter you’ll find the small plant stems with urn-shaped seed cases. The seeds are a fine dust that’s blown out of the dried capsule throughout the winter and into early spring.

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