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Saprophytes 10 images Created 3 Apr 2012

Images of saprophytes (those non-green plants who lack chlorophyll and feed on decaying organic matter or upon other living plants for food instead requiring sunlight) found and photographed across North America.

***This gallery excludes saprophytic orchids.
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  • Sometimes confused with somewhat similar saprophytic terrestrial orchids, this just-emerging stalk can reach up to three feet tall before it flowers.
    Pinedrops
  • While not an orchid, mushroom, fungus, or anything related, the delicately beautiful Indian Pipes  - also known as the ghost plant - is actually a parasitic plant called a saprophyte. This unusual plant feeds on decaying tree roots and is found in very rich and old forests, but I have found them growing in Central Florida in an oak/palmetto scrub. Since they do not require sunlight to grow, they are most often found in the darkest parts of the forests where there is also a lot of moisture present. Therefore they do not need to be green (contain chlorophyll) to convert sunlight into energy.
    Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora)
  • The candystick is a truly bizarre-looking plant that grows and feeds upon the roots of coniferous trees. It gets its name from the red and white stripes, making it look somewhat like a candycane.
    Candystick
  • This parasitic plant in the Ocala National Forest gets its nourishment from tree roots. It flowers in the fall - popping out of the ground like a mushroom, flowers, then turns black and dies.
    Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora)
  • Pinesap is believed to get its name from the fact that it "saps" the roots of pine trees and other coniferous trees upon which it feeds. These were photographed on the south face of Mount Rainier.
    Pinesap
  • A close-up look at the flowers of pinedrops. After pollination, the flowers will fruit, eventually releasing many tiny seeds with diaphanous wings that will propagate the next generation of these saprophytic pinedrops.
    Pinedrops
  • Pinedrops (Pterospora andromedea), also known as "coyote's arrows" to some native American tribes are parasitic plants that feed on the roots of pine trees and other conifers where they are found where the soil is rich. These pinedrops were photographed about one-third up the southern face of Washington's Mount Rainier.
    Pinedrops
  • Pinesap, like all saprophytes, is a plant without chlorophyll. Instead of sunlight to convert to energy, it is parasitic and feeds off of other living plants such. The pinesap feeds on the roots of conifers, as these are doing, found growing under a massive fir tree.
    Pinesap
  • This parasitic plant in the Ocala National Forest gets its nourishment from tree roots. It flowers in the fall - popping out of the ground like a mushroom, flowers, then turns black and dies.
    Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora)
  • The candystick, also know as the sugarstick,  candystriped allotropa, barber's pole and even devil's wand is an infrequently-found saprophyte in the Pacific Northwest.
    Candystick