Ghost Pipe

Transcript

So here we are on the forest floor visiting ghost plant, also known as Indian pipe. You might mistake this for a mushroom on you walk through the forest due to its colour and its strange shape. It is indeed a plant, and this plant doesn’t perform photosynthesis. It derives its nutrition from the trees and the mushrooms it lives with. So the roots of trees exchange nutrition with the roots of mushroom, the mycelia, which are connected with the roots of this plant, and that’s how it will survive. This plant is found throughout Canada, and it is a traditional medicine. It was used for a lot of nervous system-type disorders, although we don’t harvest it for medicine anymore. It is a sensitive plant and endangered in some areas due to its very special habitat requirements, and relationships with certain mushrooms and trees. So we can enjoy this, its beauty and its wonder without harvesting it. If you’d like to learn more about this plant and others, please join me at the Bloom Institute for upcoming courses beginning in September, and otherwise, enjoy your walks, and keep your eyes open for this special and mysterious plant in our forests.