No Chlorophyll Needed

This is the second time that an oddball plant named the Pinesap has sprouted up on the hill near our outhouse.

Unlike most plants, the Pine Sap (Monotropa hypopithys) does not contain chlorophyll to convert sunlight into energy. The Pinesap gets its nutrients from organic matter in the soil and is a parasite of plant roots (much like the Vancouver Groundcone). It flowers from June through October. In the summer, the blooms tend to be yellow and in the fall, they tend to be more reddish. As you can see, mine is the summer variety.

For plant identification I like to use Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon. It includes trees, shrubs, wildflowers, aquatics, grasses, ferns, mosses, lichens and, of course, some oddball plants like the Pine Sap. -- Margy