昨天山中淘金,遭遇鬼花(Ghost Flower) (with photos)

昨日山中淘金,遭遇鬼花(Ghost Flower) (with photos taken by love9999) 2008-07-30 17:51:20

It was a beautiful day yesterday with the highest temperature below 80 F.
Perfect for gold panning, hiking, a BBQ and disc golfing.

After an hour's drive, we arrived at a parking area by a creek in the mountains.

A gentle breeze was blowing and the clear creek was gurgling. All was so peaceful.


Suddenly a blue jay flew across the creek with crisp "Jay! Jay!Jay!..." Even my baby girl recognized the familiar sound. She yelled with excitement,"Mommy, that's a blue jay!"
3 months ago, she saw her daddy save 2 naughty baby blue jays which fell from their nest. Daddy spent a good 20 minutes in catching the birds with gloved hands. Finally he put them on the tree trunk,so they could move little by little back to their nest. Their parents were in such a panic, because of the presence of 2 wild cats.


Now we got off the mini van and followed the trail by the creek for around 500 feet. My hubby stopped at a spot with black sand which is said to contain gold.:) He took out his gold panning kit which contains 2 gold pans, a combination classifier, a gold guzzler suction bottle,a pair of magnifying gold tweezers and 2 gold vials! Besides them, he brought a scoop.

In no time, he changed into his water shoes and began to scoop sand into one gold pan! In another 2 or 3 minutes, he already settled himself comfortably on a log lying across the creek.



My little girl and I started to watch him panning for gold till she was bored. She wanted some little fun too! Giving her some fun had to be a top priority. Now we had to leave my hubby alone and walked a little farther on the trail. Before long I spotted on the creek bank a shady open area covered by sand. That was quite a beach--as big as a king-size bed. It was only 20 feet away from my hubby, which was wonderful, just in case a bear showed up, he could be of some help.:) I turned the little beach upside down and made sure nothing would harm us. Time to take off our socks and sneakers! Soon we were barefoot.With the help of some water, we built a sand bear and a sand castle and a pig pen for her piglet in Winnie the Pooh. I even dug a tunnel system! How she laughed when I allowed her to walk on top of the tunnel system and she fell on her hands when the tunnels were caving in! That was a lot of fun! Soon she got tired of playing with sand. Now I had to move around again to please her.



When our feet were washed and dried and sneakers were put on, my little girl and I decided to hunt for mushrooms (not for food,though). We found 5 species of mushrooms in 4 different colors--- white, orange, red and yellow! And as I turned around a huge rock, a cluster of something unearthly caught my eyes! They were all white, from stem to blossom. But inside the cup-shaped flowers, there were about 10 yellow stamen (which I got to know later). The white leaves were waxy. For a moment, I thought I had discovered a new specie of fungus! And I wanted to name it Rose Fungus, because they did look like white roses!
I picked one flower and ran back to my hubby who was still panning for gold. I showed him the white "rose". He said he had no idea of what it was. But he suggested that I take photos of them. Fortunately, I had my small digital camera on me. I took some photos of the unearthly flowers and then we left the creek for a BBQ in a national park!

On my way to the park, I kept wondering what they could really be. Plants or fungi? If they were plants, how come their leaves were white and waxy? My stomach began to rumble and I made up my mind not to think about those flowers any more.



After 20 minutes, we got to the park. My hubby started the BBQ, while my girl and I were sitting at a picnic table waiting. Soon the aroma of the best hot dogs and sausages in town started to float in the air. My hubby was good at BBQing. Withinin 15 minutes, we had everything on the table: coke, chips, hot dogs, diced oninon, tomato ketchup, mustard,etc. When we were enjoying the BBQ, an old gentleman with a walking stick happened to walk by. My hu*****and asked him to come and join the BBQ. He declined, but he stopped and talked about himself. He was so open-minded. He even told us how old he was and how he survived his cancer and how he got rid of his wheelchair and walked again. He was a biologist! Just the person I wanted! I asked if I could ask him a question. He said yes. So I showed him the photos I had taken of the flowers. He told me they were Indian Pipe, also known as Ghost Flower!They were plants, not fungi! I thanked him alot. What good luck I had! I got my question answered!!


Dear readers, I'd like to share with you the photos and facts about Indian Pipe or Ghost Flower.


Indian Pipe is a small, low-lying wildflower. Unique among wildflowers, Indian Pipe is opaque white (sometimes red-rarely pink) in color from root to petal. As indicated by its scientific name, Indian pipe has a singular nodding flower at its terminal end. The straight, thin stem has a waxy, fungus-like consistency and is irregularly sheathed in thin, translucent white bracts (reduced from leaves).

Indian pipe thrives best in woodland humus.

Indian Pipe lacks chlorophyll accounting for its translucent white color. Because it can not synthesize its own energy, this plant is a saprophyte; like a fungus, its root system soaks up necessary nutrients from surrounding decaying plant matter.


Like most saprophytic plants, Indian pipe turns dark brown to black when it is starved or in fruit.


Also known as the "Corpse Plant" or "Ghost Flower".

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所有跟帖： 

• 好诡异的花．．． -babylisa- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:10:26

• Some people say it turns black after being touched, -love9999- ♀ (136 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:14:13

• Nice photo and article aijiu. thx for sharing... -chinesebuns- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:13:36

• Thanks for liking them, juicy baozi!:) -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:20:41

• 长见识了。 -高英姬- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:15:44

• I was educated yesterday by a stranger. I read a lot about the f -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:21:16

• I read a lot about the flowers today,so I decided to write somet -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:21:58

• so I decided to write something to share with you guys. -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:22:31

• wow. so cool! -知福惜福- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:25:09

• 花还是雌(1个)雄(10-12个)一体的呢.都围着中间的美女转.:) -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:38:08

• 感情这花母系社会来着. 小花鬼鬼的很可爱. 很喜欢爱九的生活. -沙发土豆- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 06:43:04

• 毛骨耸然。。。谢爱久。 -惜福- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:25:59

• 我后来仔细看觉得那花有点毛骨耸然。叶子不含叶绿素. -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:39:10

• 知道有这样的名，怕怕的 -贴心宝贝- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/30/2008 postreply 21:46:30

• thanks, it is my first time ever knew this flower, beautiful -三更半夜瞎溜达- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 03:00:41

• 爱久一家的淘金之旅趣味无穷，长知识，没出息的说我好象闻到BBQ的香味了 -天涯人远- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 04:34:37

• Learned something new, thank you -what_name_to_use- ♀ (28 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 04:46:26

• 爱九一家老有独特发现，又跟着长知识了 -kathyzhang73- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 06:15:42

• Co：又跟着长见识了。爱九知道不少自然知识，与天地同辉，难怪爱的久。。。 -子夏浮云- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 06:55:28

• Co：又跟着长见识了。爱九知道不少自然知识，与天地同辉，难怪爱的久。。。 -squirrel_6- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 07:27:37

• 名字不好听，但看上去还是蛮可爱的，爱九家过的日子真悠闲呢 -臭臭妈妈- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 07:28:37

• 爱久可以出个画册，肯定销量好。 -Oona- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 07:31:13

• MM is so talented :))) -gzlady- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 08:10:41

• 鼓励常给俺们科普！顺便淘点金子！ -无名89- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 08:32:43

• CO：鼓励常给俺们科普！顺便淘点金子！ -clipmom- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 09:32:36

• 耶，是很有点诡谲哈。顶个 -sansemao- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 09:05:55

• 为节省版面.谢的家顶!下次hiking时准备寻找西洋参玩玩.:) -love9999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 12:24:18

• 爱久，我见过的花不少，这的确很ghost.... -安娜晴天- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/31/2008 postreply 13:08:57