hubby grows mushrooms.....he calls me the other day and says...the mushroom you go nuts over are up....well i am not into mushrooms....so i wonder over to this logs...and there are the indian pipes or corpse plant or ghost pipe...i love them....of course....they are hard to find and once you find a patch you hope they spread..except for this...
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Here's how it works: Since Indian Pipe has no chlorophyl, it can't make its own food like most plants. Therefore, it has to "borrow" nutrients, either from decaying plant matter, or from another organism. The way it does this is by having its roots tap into the mycelia (root-like threads) of a fungus. The Indian Pipe can then take nutrients directly from the fungus. Meanwhile, the fungus itself has another relationship going on with a tree. The fungus's mycelia also tap into the tree's roots. Many fungi and trees have this type of relationship -- it's called a "mycorrhizal relationship." The fungus gives nutrients to the tree and the tree gives nutrients to the fungus. Both organisms help each other out.
Indian Pipe, however, does not give anything back to the fungus or the tree. It takes nutrients from the fungus that the fungus had gotten for itself, and it also takes nutrients that the fungus had received from the tree. Since the fungus then has to take more nutrients from the tree, this makes Indian Pipe a parasite of both the fungus and the tree.
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indian pipe
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Here's how it works: Since Indian Pipe has no chlorophyl, it can't make its own food like most plants. Therefore, it has to "borrow" nutrients, either from decaying plant matter, or from another organism. The way it does this is by having its roots tap into the mycelia (root-like threads) of a fungus. The Indian Pipe can then take nutrients directly from the fungus. Meanwhile, the fungus itself has another relationship going on with a tree. The fungus's mycelia also tap into the tree's roots. Many fungi and trees have this type of relationship -- it's called a "mycorrhizal relationship." The fungus gives nutrients to the tree and the tree gives nutrients to the fungus. Both organisms help each other out.
Indian Pipe, however, does not give anything back to the fungus or the tree. It takes nutrients from the fungus that the fungus had gotten for itself, and it also takes nutrients that the fungus had received from the tree. Since the fungus then has to take more nutrients from the tree, this makes Indian Pipe a parasite of both the fungus and the tree.
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indian pipe
