Ghost Plants, Memories and Wistfulness

   Back when I was just a kid, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents.   I think being the tail end of a five kids, I was just too much for Mom to handle with all of the other duties of being a farmwife.  So...I would run down the road and up the long lane to my grandparents' house and spend the day or two...whatever it took for Mom to be ready to handle five kids again.  Taking care of kids, farm critters, produce, the house was a huge chore.  I loved being with my grandparents as it made me feel mighty special!  

  It was on one of those weekends with them that my granddad took me into the edge of the woods to show me an unusual plant.  I was enthralled by there being a plant that was ghostly white!  Granddad, ever being the instructor of so many things, took the time to explain how having a pure white plant was possible.  He told me how the plant did not depend on the sun to help it make chlorophyll but that it was a parasitic plant to a fungi that was actually in a symbiotic relationship with tree roots.  The plant would feed off the fungi that, in a sense, fed off the tree.  After that, it became an regular thing for us to go in search of the "Ghost Plants" also known as Indian Pipes (Monotropa Uniflora).  To this day, I still go to the "special" spot where the ghost plants grow.  Down beneath the brushy plants that surround some old oak trees, I can be found on my knees in a different world.  I can dream away the hour simply remembering the lessons Granddad took the time to teach to an inquisitive child.  

  Just recently, I found out that there are many, many people who have never seen these plants.  In fact, they had no idea that they even exist.  Perhaps, they did not have a nurturing grandpa that took the time to wander the woods with a tyke in tow.  Or, perhaps, they did but the lesson did not stick as they were not interested in such things.  Regardless, I am glad I did.  My time spent with my grandparents will always be held dear to my heart.  I only wish I had the same opportunity to impart to my grandkids such tidbits of knowledge about the wondrous things of the world.  Then again...perhaps...they would not be interested as they are bombarded with the material things like all other kids of this day and age.