A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Monotropa uniflora
One of my favorite plants! Ghost plants are parasitic plants that take nutrients from certain fungi that take their nutrients from trees. While the fungi and the tree have a mutalistic relationship, ghost plants don't give anything back to the fungi, which is why it is a parasite. They do not get their energy from sunlight, which is why they can grow in dark places such as under a log as shown here.
Under a pine log in a moist forest with pine, oak, birch, and maple
Spotted on Oct 15, 2015
Submitted on Nov 1, 2015
1 Comment
Awesome! I've never seen one growing directly under a log like that (although it makes sense, huh?) Thanks for sharing, I love this plant too :)