Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) Identification, Medicinal Benefits, and More with Adam Haritan

hey everyone I'm Adam Harrison from lunar land comm and I'm in a beautiful place right now as you can see all around me I'm surrounded by a sea of green and this green owes its color to the chlorophyll pigment in the leaves of these trees and plants around me now we just passed through the summer solstice here in the northern hemisphere and all this summer is not necessarily considered a prime wildflower season at least in Pennsylvania it's still a great time of year to get out and look at and appreciate all the wildflowers that are available we're gonna focus on one in particular in this video today it's actually one that gets confused for a fungus more so than any plant that I've come across because it's white and it lacks the chlorophyll pigment and therefore it does not photosynthesize but it's still able to obtain its nutrients somehow this plant is none other than the Indian pipe or corpse plant its Latin name is mono tropa you know flora and monitor per unit flora is in the arecaceae family or the heath family so it's not too distantly related from blueberries and cranberries and rhododendrons it's in the subfamily mono triploidy a and why this is important because this subfamilies characterized by plants that are might go heterotrophic michael heterotrophic might go from mushroom and heterotroph from an organism that cannot produce its own food if you look at the Indian Pike we put these words together we can see that it requires a fungus to obtain its nutrients somehow and it's actually a three-way network in order for it to obtain its nutrients and here's how it works there are certain trees associated with the Indian pipe plant here in Pennsylvania those would be American beech trees and pine trees and some other trees and they obtain a nutrients from the Sun through photosynthesis and these nutrients are then passed some of them are passed to certain mycorrhizal fungi and the mycorrhizal fungi in turn shuttle some of their nutrients over to the trees these would be minerals and water so they exchange nutrients between each other then the Indian pipe plant then absorbs some of these nutrients from the mycorrhizal fungus that originally got its nutrients from the tree so if we look at this the mycorrhizal fungus actually acts as a bridge between the tree and the Maiko heterotroph which is the Indian pipe plant so that certain nutrients namely carbon can pass from the plant over to the mycorrhizal fungus over to the Indian pipe plant and what's interesting is that research shows that the Indian pipe plant is pretty much a taker it's not really a giver it doesn't give up anything in exchange for the nutrients that it receives now good question is you know there's a lot of mushrooms out this time of year especially since we've had so much rain in the northeastern United States this year can all mushrooms work with this network so that the Indian pipe plant can absorb some of these nutrients the answer is no not really research shows that it's usually members of the russell ACA family and these members would be russell a-- mushrooms and the lactarius mushrooms these are two genre of mushrooms that are in the russell ACA family so if you're not familiar with russell on mushrooms the russell on mushrooms are generally larger mushrooms in the woods that are characterized by having brightly colored caps reds oranges green sometimes purples and if you flip them upside down the gills are usually white in their brittle and there's no veil around the stem if you would pick one of these mushrooms up and happen to throw it against the tree or rock not like I've ever done this or anything but it would shatter quite easily because very fragile the lactarius mushrooms are in the same family so they slightly resemble Russell on mushrooms but if you would flip them upside down and look at their gills and if their gills are bruised they would begin to exude a white milky latex hence the name lactarius so these are two genres of mushrooms the russell a--'s and the lactarius mushrooms that are in the same family russell ACA that are associated with the indian pipe plant so even though we've had so much for him the past few weeks here in pennsylvania and there are numerous bolete mushrooms that are out there Amanita Skorton arias mushrooms chanterelles black trumpets oysters all kinds of different mushrooms the indian pipe plant specifically wants its nutrients from the russell ax and the lactarius mushrooms which actually get their nutrients from the trees the indian pipe plant has been used as a traditional medicine in north america we see in traditional cherokee medicine for example that the indian pipe plant has been used as an anticonvulsant herb as a dermatological aid and also as an eyewash and even modern herbalists are using them for similar conditions and tinctures can be made as an Irvine and for a gentle pain reliever as well now is a great time to get out and look for the Indian pipe plants if you're in Pennsylvania if in the northeastern United States are gonna look for rich moist Woodlands characterized by beech trees and pine trees and you're gonna want to step off the trail a little bit they don't grow out in the open they grow underneath the canopy so you're gonna look where the mushrooms would be found and they tend to grow in small clusters and you look for these white flowering stocks so those stocks that you see are actually flowers and there's one flower per stock hence the name you know flora that's its species name now these are very difficult to propagate they would be tough to dig up and bring them home because remember it needs this extensive specific network in order for it to thrive it needs the specific mycorrhizal fungi the rustles and the lactarius mushrooms it needs a specific trees all working in tandem in order for the Indian pipe to absorb the nutrients from the tree but through this mycorrhizal fungus they're probably best appreciated out in the wild but I do encourage you to get out this time of year and look for this unique plant the Indian pipe and if you do find them look for the lactarius mushrooms and look for the rustle of mushrooms and vice versa if you see these mushrooms look around perhaps you will see some of the Indian pipe plants and know that just beyond your sight right underneath your feet lies this vast very specific network involving specific plants or trees specific mycorrhizal fungi in this micro heterotroph that we call the Indian pipe plant which although it's a glorified list meaning it lacks chlorophyll it's not able to photosynthesize it's still able to draw in nutrients through this specific network so that it can produce these mysterious yet very beautiful white wild flowers this time of year thanks so much for watching this video really appreciate it hope you get a chance to get out there and look for the Indian pipe plant this year thanks again take care

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 177,029

Keywords: Learn Your Land, Adam Haritan, Monotropa uniflora, Pennsylvania, Cherokee, Russula, Lactarius, Mushrooms, Foraging, Wild Food, Wild Medicine, Wildflower, Native Plants

Id: -YZk2lJBsfw

Length: 6min 35sec (395 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2015