Fungi

October 12, 2006 at 6:25 pm (flora)

Indian Pipes in God’s Garden, on the Nature Trail at the Saint Anthony’s Franciscan Monastery, Kennebunkport, Maine, September 2006.

The colorless, heterotrophic Indian pipe secures all its nourishment from mycorrhizal fungi that are attached at the same time to the roots of some autotrophic plant such as a pine tree.

Indian Pipe was used as a medicinal plant by Native Americans and the early Colonials, both as a sedative and a remedy for sore eyes. Modern medicine shuns such use, noting that the plant contains various toxins, including several different glycosides.

From my Picasa album “The Franciscan Monastery“.
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The image, Fungi, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Neddy’s .