Last weekend when Aliya and I were alone at camp, I was on an early morning walk with Annie and I saw these plants that I had never seen before. I grew up in the woods, so I was surprised that they were something completely new to me growing not far down the trail. I thought they were some sort of mushroom because they were completely white and kind of rubbery. They were so white that the camera had a hard time focusing (or maybe that was me) – there was no contrast from one part of the plant to the next.

They’re actually not mushrooms, they just lack chlorophyll, which is why they’re white.  It can’t make its own food so it gets food from a fungus, which in turn gets food from a tree, so the Indian Pipe is a parasite of both the fungus and the tree.  Don’t say I never taught you anything.

This morning I took my macro lens out and at first I was disappointed that the plants were dying, but the black really made them look cool I think.  Note that the flowers have also changed position from hanging down to pointing up.  I like this photo because itshows the life cycle – there are new flowers under the dead leaves, and dead ones from previous seasons laying at the bottom of the photo.

I noticed when I zoomed in that there’s a tiny spider on one of the flowers:

I tried out my macro lens which I’m still learning how to use.  I had a tripod today which helps a lot, and I learned how to use LiveView which is crucial when taking macro photos.