EMPIRE, MI – The eerie beauty of this unusual plant has been spotted at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, an indication of a healthy forest at the park. Park staff wants to know: “Have you ever been haunted by the eerie beauty of a ghost pipe?” The “spooky” plant is peculiar because it doesn’t have chlorophyll, also known as “the green stuff that allows a plant to photosynthesize.” Without photosynthesis, ghost pipes get creative by feeding on underground fungi to survive.
Here’s how it works: Trees send sugary sap down from their leaves to their roots. Fungus then taps in and steals some of that sugar. Next, the underground ghost pipe plant taps into the fungal sugar stash and uses that energy to send its flower up to be pollinated by bumblebees.
Ghost pipes grow best around mature beech trees. Since they don’t need sunlight, they can be seen pushing up through the leaf cover in places that are very shady..
