‘Indian pipe.” This is a term that conjures up many images – but not the one that was in store for me on a sunny day in August in Maine.

I have come to learn from spending a lot of time here that things are not always what they seem and what you think you know can and will be challenged from time to time.

This incident occurred while I was on my way back up to the house after an afternoon of swimming and sunning by the lake. As I passed the wooded area beside our house, I spied something different poking up from the earth.

There were several clumps of a plant of some sort with tall thin stems and a small bulbous structure on top that drooped over like a little hanging lantern. They were a luminous white and looked ghostly standing tall amid the gloom of the woods.

I quickly called my husband to the scene because he had grown up on the East Coast, so surely he would know what they were. Alas, he did not, so I ran inside to get my trusty National Audubon Society Field Guide to New England. It did not take me long to find it, as it is a very distinctive-looking plant.

Yep, you guessed it – Indian pipe (though its scientific name is Monotropa uniflora). It’s a wildflower that grows in wooded areas from June through September. It thrives in areas of organic decayed matter, which totally makes sense because most of the clumps were in a dark area of the woods amid piles of dead leaves and pine needles.

The flowers are quite a sight to see and do live up to their many nicknames, including not only Indian pipe but also ghost plant and (my favorite) fairy smoke. The flowers do not have chlorophyll, which is why they are a luminous white color, but the fun does not stop there. When you pick them, they turn black.

Of course I had to test that theory out and quickly picked a couple and put them in a vase on our kitchen counter. The tips of the petals get black first, kind of tinged actually like a smoking pipe.

As the days go by, the flower gets blacker all the way down the stem. It is a curious and beautiful plant and one that keeps popping up all over now that we have discovered it.

This flower encompasses everything I know and love about the state of Maine.

Every time I am here, I discover and learn new things. There is beauty and mystery hidden around every corner, every bend of the road and every inch of your own property. You only have to keep your eyes open and your heart full.

 

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