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.

Ghosts of the Bayou

  While it seems a bit late to be talking of ghosts on the Bayou since Halloween was two weeks ago, they are here.  Ghosts!  On the Bayou!  Actually, I am speaking of a find in the back yard.  I am always on the lookout for something a tad unusual and this morning I found it.  Mark and I were heading to the store when I spied my treasure.  As he was backing the truck out of the driveway, my eyes picked up on a small plant under the azalea bushes.  Aha!  Ghost plants!  I knew then that I would be taking pictures while out in the rain on this cold day.  In fact, I could not concentrate on our shopping trip because my brain kept flitting back to beneath the bushes!

  Ghost plants used to be thought of as a type of mushroom but recently it was discovered that they were indeed plants not fungi.  Besides the ghost plant name, these things go by Indian pipes, corpse plants or ice plants.  These are all due to their appearance.  They do have one of those unpronounceable names...Monotropa uniflora.  Ghost plants are plants but do not have chlorophyll nor do they get their energy from the sun.  Usually, these plants are found on the forest floor where it is rather dark (hence under my azalea bushes which are under oak trees).  They are parasitic in that they draw nutrients from other living things.  In the ghost plants case, they do this in sort of a weird way.  A fungus wraps its mycella around the roots of a nearby tree.  This relationship is good for the two as the fungus draws nutrients from the tree while the tree gets extra moisture from the fungus.  Then along comes the ghost plant.  It is a grand thief!  It taps its roots into the mycella and steals nutrients from both the fungus and the tree! 

  I have always found the plants to be quite interesting.  Granddad was the first to introduce them to me so many years ago.  He called them Indian pipes and told me that they were mushrooms. He also told me of the other names.  I was allowed to choose my favorite so they became known as ghost plants from that day forward.   Come to think of it, our first sighting of the plants was just about in this very spot over fifty years ago!