Earlier this summer we ran across a peculiar plant making its way up through the earth in the forest. A strange striped asparagus? No Woodland Pinedrops: Pterospora andromeda.
According to Wikipedia “Like all members of the Monotriopoidiae , Pterospora andromedea lacks chlorophyll (trace amounts have been identified, but not enough to provide energy for the plant or to color it. Plants exist for most of their life as a mass of brittle, but fleshy, roots. They live in a parasitic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi, in which plants derive all their carbon from their associated fungus, but the relationship is not yet well understood.”
This makes it similar to several of the orchids we have encountered along the trail.
Now that summer has passed and fall is in the air the plant looks like this.
Somewhat like a small tree full of small pumpkins decorating the autumn forest.
nature has no boss 
That’s an amazing transformation from the ‘tears’ running down the side, to small pumpkin like shapes. Nature is wonderful. 🙂
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Hi and we hope you are finally getting some rain in your area. These are definitely unique plants.
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I’ve never heard of this. Cool observation, and amazing how different it looks now compared to earlier. Where did you see this? Curious as to what part of the country these grow in.
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HI Kit, the USDA map shows it in the Western half of the US. We have seen it in the rocky mountain region from Montana all the way to Northern NM.
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I guess I need to keep my eyes open. I live in the west!
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Well, they are there but certainly not abundant by any stretch of the imagination.
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What a beauty – I’ve not seen this plant before – must be a western native.
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Hi Eliza, I believe it is mostly a western plant although from what I recall reading about it Pinedrops may be present in the Northeast forests as well.
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How gorgeous, new to me.
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Hi Paula, although we had seen the fall version of this plant we had never seen it in spring so it was new to us as well.
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Fascinating.
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Hi Sherry, it is a unique plant for sure.
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