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Indian Pipe Flower

  Starting now and going into the later part of the summer season, you might come across Indian Pipe in the dense forest understory near the beech trees it prefers.

The plants shoot straight up from the ground like a tiny series of 8-inch tall white-painted flutes. Or a bizarre bunch of white asparagus.  Generally rare in occurrence, these flowers have also gone by the macabre nicknames ghost plant, corpse plant and death flower, and the much more intriguing fairy smoke.

W. Brooks Paternotte took the helm of Irvine Nature Center as executive director in July 2013 and immediately began building on the strong 35-year foundation. Brooks is a Baltimore native who was a teacher, coach, advisor, dean and Head of the Middle School during his 13 years at Boys’ Latin School in Baltimore. He is also an instructor and ambassador of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and is a Leave No Trace Master, as well as an avid outdoorsman and a features writer for FlyLife Magazine.
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