Wren’s plant of the week

This week I asked my co-worker Wren what his favourite plant was. He chose the Ghost Pipe Plant (Monotropa uniflora) which is a herbaceous perennial

Hey Wren, what is your favourite plant?

Great question, this plant isn’t one that you would be able to find or grow in a garden but it is one that I just absolutely love! It is called the Ghost Pipe plant.

I have never heard of that before, can you tell me a little bit about it and why you like it?

Yeah definitely! It is such a cool and interesting plant and it is also super rare. I think that it only blooms once a year for a week and then it is gone again! It has just grown to look like what a plant SHOULD NOT look like which is really neat. I have seen it in the woods only a few times in my life, but every time I have seen it it has felt very special

Cool! Do you have any more information that you know about it?

It is native to North America, Northern parts of South America, and parts of Asia I’m pretty sure. It has a story from the Indigenous People of the Cherokee Nation. The legend states that the plant was named “Indian pipe” due to a group of chiefs quarreling without resolution, while passing a pipe around during the dispute; the Great Spirit then turned the chiefs into the plant, as they should have smoked the sacred pipe after making peace with each other. The plant is said to grow wherever friends have quarreled. It also relies on nutrients that are naturally found within the forest soil that you just cannot replicate in your personal garden which makes it one that you will just have to enjoy when you find it.

Thanks for sharing Wren, hopefully, I will be able to catch a glimpse of it one day!

Medicinal Purposes

In addition to various reported medical uses, the plant has been used as an anxiolytic in herbal medicine since the late 19th century. This may be due to the plant containing salicylic acid. It has been said that it tastes like asparagus once cooked.