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Opis:
Ghost Pipe or Indian Pipe or Ghost Flower or Corpse flower are just a few common names for Monotropa unifora. A true flowering plant with no leaves or green chlorophyll. It lives by a symbiotic parasitic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. These mycorrhizal fungi are in a mutualistic relationship with American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) trees in this part of the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. Ghost Pipe is getting its energy to live from the mycorrhizal fungi and in turn the fungi are getting energy (carbon/sugar) from the American Beech tree. How to recognize and identify Ghost Pipe and its fascinating complex relationship with two different organisms is explained. Two kinds of symbiosis, parasitism and mutualism is explained.
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