Look closerPlants
Ghost pipe: the white forest plant with no green, June to September
When: June to September
Ghost pipe rises in shaded Massachusetts woods from June through September, a waxy white plant with no chlorophyll that feeds through fungi tied into tree roots.
Why this time of year
Massachusetts ghost pipe season runs June through September, so a shaded mid-summer walk under mature oaks and maples is prime time to catch the white stems up.
How to notice it
- Walk a shaded trail under mature oaks or maples and scan the bare leaf litter, not the green patches.
- Look for small clusters of waxy white stems, each curled over at the top like a little pipe.
- Crouch close and count the stems, keeping hands off.
- Note the spot; late in the season the same stems turn brown and shrivel as their seeds drop.
Try this with kids: How can a plant live without making its own food from sunlight?
mycorrhizal fungi are soil fungi woven into tree roots that move food and nutrients
Safety
- Look, do not pick or dig. Ghost pipe cannot be transplanted or grown at home; it lives only through its buried fungal partners.
- Stay at the trail edge so the patch and its leaf litter stay undisturbed.
Sources
- massaudubon.orgMassachusetts timing (pops up starting in June and lasting through September, then turns brown, shrivels, and drops seeds), lack of chlorophyll, feeding via the fungal network around tree roots, and shaded moist mature forest habitat
- fs.usda.govFlowering roughly June through September; saps nutrients and carbohydrates from tree roots through mycorrhizal fungi in the genera Russula and Lactarius; grows in humus in deep shady woods
- extension.illinois.eduCannot be cultivated outside its natural woodland setting because of its specialized fungal relationships with tree roots
- canr.msu.eduCompletely lacks chlorophyll, networks with mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots, grows in the darkest parts of a woodlot, typically in the root zone of oaks and also under maples
In the guide for June, July, August, September