Dutchman's pipe (Hypopitys monotropa), fam. Ericaceae.
   Observed in the forest in sandy pine groves to the north of the lake, where the grass is not covering the soil (see map – almost the same place as Umbellate Wintergreen) was found. Dutchman's pipe is one of the stangest of our plants. In the Ericaceae (Heather) family, there are many species adapted to gain additional nutrition from symbiosis with fungi. However, only few of them, like Dutchman's pipe, switched to this type of nutrition completely, having no more green leaves. Dutchman's pipe gains all necessary substances from fungi, which consume organic residues from the surrounding trees, as well as some direct nutrition from the living trees sap. The only function that Dutchman's pipe has kept is reproduction. It blooms in early summer, then its tiny seeds are spread by the wind.

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