Nature Essays

Nature guards certain treasures carefully, hiding them away in secret places. These include the green jack-in-the pulpit, deep in the emerald underbrush, as well as the tiny black ladybug, crawling beneath a leaf. The Indian Pipe, or corpse plant, is a white herb that grows in many places but is seldom seen because it is so fussy about where it will live. It feeds on one particular fungi, which grows only among the underground roots of certain trees, such as oak and beech.

This plant is a visual treat, because it usually throws up several stems that are covered with translucent scales. A delicate pink tinge sometimes tints the stems so faintly that you have to strain to see it. The stems are fragile beyond belief and terminate in small white flowers. Recently, I learned that the crook in the stem straightens out when the flowers mature. Then the blossoms turn upwards, like tiny faces. To view a cluster of these plants up close is a gift indeed.