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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE INDIAN-PIPE FAMILY | |||||||||
| The Indian-pipe family is easy to recognize because these plants do not have chlorophyll, meaning that they are not green. To obtain nutrients, these plants live off of decaying matter in the soil. The stems are fleshy and can be pink, yellow, reddish or whitish. The leaves are reduced to small, scale-like structures. The flowers can be solitary or in branched or unbranched clusters. The flowers are generally the same colour as the plant and have four or five sepals and petals, up to 12 stamens and one style and stigma. The fruit is a capsule or occasionally, a berry. | |||||||||
| MANY-FLOWER INDIAN-PIPE | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Monotropa hypopithys | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Many-flower Indian-pipe grows up to 30 cm tall from rhizomes. The stems, which can be pink, yellow or reddish, are commonly clustered. The leaves are scale-like and the upper leaves are larger than the lower leaves. The flowers are in an unbranched cluster that is nodding at maturity. The flowers have hairy petals that are sac-like at the base. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Many-flower Indian-pipe grows in lodgepole pine woods. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in southwestern Saskatchewan in the Cypress Upland ecoregion. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Many-flower Indian-pipe is threatened in Saskatchewan because it is rare and restricted to one small region of the province. Local population sizes vary. No immediate threats are known for this species. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY MANY-FLOWER INDIAN-PIPE | |||||||||
| * Is the plant saprophytic (i.e. not green, living
on decaying organic matter)? * Are the flowers nodding in unbranched clusters? * Are the leaves scale-like? * Did you find it in the Cypress Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found many-flower Indian-pipe! | |||||||||
