Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

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kateinoregon
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Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by kateinoregon » August 6th, 2010, 3:41 pm

Curious for an ID on this plant.

I found it on the trail to Cape Falcon in Oswald West State Park off of Hwy 101 near Manzanita/Cannon Beach on Wednesday evening (6:30pm).

I have never seen anything like it. It was in a section TOTALLY devoid of sunlight. Not even any filtered light. It was growing in rotting stump debris at the side of the trail. The leaves are good for scale--stalks 4 to 8 inches in height. Single buds/blooms on the ends of stalks were 3/4 to 1 inch long.

(I'm a newbie and this is my first post here--be kind!!!)
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Stevefromdodge
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by Stevefromdodge » August 6th, 2010, 4:02 pm

At a glance, it looks like Indian Pipe Monotropa uniflora. It lives off fungi in the needles on the forest floor.

Cool stuff.


ps. Welcome to the site!

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kateinoregon
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by kateinoregon » August 6th, 2010, 4:16 pm

Brilliant. That's it!! Thanks.

Indian Pipe aka Ghost Plant.

FROM Wikipedia: "Unlike most plants, it is white and does not contain chlorophyll. Instead of generating energy from sunlight, it is parasitic, more specifically a myco-heterotroph. Its hosts are certain fungi that are mycorrhizal with trees, meaning it ultimately gets its energy from photosynthetic trees. Since it is not dependent on sunlight to grow, it can grow in very dark environments as in the understory of dense forest. The complex relationship that allows this plant to grow also makes propagation difficult."

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adamschneider
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by adamschneider » August 6th, 2010, 4:50 pm

There are a number of chlorophyll-less plants around. "Pinesap" is another you might run into. But yeah, that's indian pipe.

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n.bumppo
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by n.bumppo » August 7th, 2010, 5:48 pm

I saw 2 or 3 clumps of these ghost flowers on the Cape Horn Trail last Saturday. Didn't stop to take pictures and regretted it. So today when I saw more on the way up to Table Mountain, I stopped and took a picture.

I think this is the same Indian Pipe.
20100807_Table Mt_2.jpg
Dave

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kateinoregon
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by kateinoregon » October 24th, 2010, 12:33 pm

[quote="n.bumppo"]I saw 2 or 3 clumps of these ghost flowers on the Cape Horn Trail last Saturday. Didn't stop to take pictures and regretted it. So today when I saw more on the way up to Table Mountain, I stopped and took a picture.

I saw more of it on the Ramona Falls trail on Oct. 2.
IndianPipe.JPG
IndianPipe.JPG (63.91 KiB) Viewed 5854 times
Near the base of this bluff.
bluff.JPG

johnspeth
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by johnspeth » June 29th, 2019, 3:58 pm

I'm late to the party but I'll add this to our body of knowledge:

The subject of the original post is the indian pipe plant. Read about it here.

This week I was hiking on the Augsburger Mountain trail near Dog Mountain. I found a similar plant in a cool, steep, shady area. It was a phantom orchid. Read about it here.

Both rare plants are completely white, like fine porcelain. It's a real treat to behold.

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adamschneider
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Re: Odd albino plant in Oswald West State Park near Cape Falcon

Post by adamschneider » June 29th, 2019, 5:55 pm

Yeah, phantom orchids are pretty common around Dog Mountain. There's a reliable patch of them just beyond the 780' fork on the DM trail.

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