Anyone know what this is?

[Mike Cruz]

I thought it might be some sort of mushroom, but couldn't find it in my mushroom book. They just started popping up in our woods about a week ago, and are fading already. One of the reasons I thought it was some sort of shroom or fungus.

[Matt Newton]

They are called indian pipes. Its an herbacious perrennial plant that is parasitic on fungi.

[David Weaver]

Cool! Learned something today by wiki-ing that up. Never heard of that or a Lobster mushroom before.

Plants (the indian pipes) that grow without clorophyll but aren't a fungus....never would've thought.

[Gene Howe]

Don't know. Don't eat it!

[Mike Cruz]

Thanks for the warning Gene, but I am not a mushroom lover. I don't even eat the morels that I have in my woods. I do, however, hunt for them. A local diner that my wife and I frequent is always happy to see me come in with my latest "bounty". I don't really find that many of them here. My woods SEEM like the perfect environment, but I've never yielded more than about 20 mushrooms (morels) in a year. And I have only found them in 4 spots (in 9 acres of woods). My neighbor, about 1/2 mile away, finds gallons and gallons of them... Another neighbor finds 5 or 6 individuals.

Thanks, Matt. I'll go look it up.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Indian pipe (monotropa uniflora):it is edible if you cook it. The putative toxin is more than anything else a reactionary response to its use by ancient peoples and native Americans as an opiate like medicinal.

Instead of using chlorophyll, It gets sugar from the mycorrhizal association between various fungi that have penetrated plant and tree roots and are obtaining sugars along with t other things that they exchange with the trees and plants.
Fungi will extend mycelia which truncate or branch out into individual hyphae, The hyphae become microscopic. The entire mycelia and hyphae structure are sort of kind of like plant roots in that they gather in nutrients for the fungi. The hyphae will penetrate the plant and tree roots even entering the cells at the near sub microscope level extracting inter alia sugars. The Hyphae and mycelia are more efficient at absorbing water than the tree roots so the fungi exchanges water which the tree takes up. This is called the mycorrhizal exchange.
It's a sweet deal for both.

The Indian pipe gets some of those sugars which the fungi got from the trees.

[Mike Cruz]

So, what you are saying, if I get you correctly, is that this plant, when prepared properly, has "effects" that might stimulate one's senses... Hmmmm, and I didn't have to lick a frog to find out...:rolleyes:

Seriously, though, I wouldn't do it, wouldn't recommend that anyone does it, and wouldn't dare anyone to try. As a side note, I don't ingest anything, other than alcohol and the very occasional prescribed drug, that might affect me. So, no, I'm not looking for a shroom. And while I like Hewey Lewis, I don't "Want a New Drug"... ;)

[John Shuk]

I've always wondered about those.
Haven't seen you here in a while Cliff....I'm glad to see you.

[Gene Howe]

Mike,
About the only thing I miss about Southern IL is the Morels. Don't find a lot of shrooms in AZ....well, legal shrooms, anyway.;)
Love Morels battered and fried. Course, I like Mt. Oysters, too.:D

[Mike Cruz]

Amazing how everyone tells me how good they are and how m-m-m-yummy they are (morels, that is). When I ask them how they cook 'em, they always reply with the same answer...fry 'em up in butter! Well, I have a question for you... What does NOT taste good fried it butter. I'm sure horse poop woul have a certain tangy taste, but you'd probably aquire a taste for it eventually...if you fried it up in some some butter, or bacon grease! Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering already...