FoI
Yellow Pine-Sap
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Yellow Pine-Sap
P Native Unknown Photo: Ashutosh Sharma
Common name: Yellow Pine-Sap, Dutchman's pipe, False beech-drops, ellow bird's-nest
Botanical name: Monotropa hypopitys    Family: Ericaceae (Blueberry family)
Synonyms: Hypopitys multiflora, Monotropa lanuginosa, Hypopitys lutea

Yellow Pine-Sap is a perennial herb that does not contain chlorophyll. It is a myco-heterotroph, getting its food through parasitism upon fungi rather than photosynthesis. Plant is fleshy and grows 10-35 cm tall. True stems are nonexistent. Instead, the only part which emerges from the soil are unbranched adventitious inflorescences which are developmentally similar to adventitious roots. All parts of the plant are pale yellowish white to reddish-tinged. The bracts are 5-10 mm long scale-like structures, which cover most of the inflorescence. Flowers are drooping when young, but become erect when they begin to mature into the fruit which is a capsule. The flowers are 9-12 mm long and produced in a cluster of 1-11 together at the tip of the inflorescence, which is a raceme. Yellow Pine-Sap is native to temperate Northern Hemisphere to Central America. In India it is found in the Himalayas.

Identification credit: Ashutosh Sharma Photographed in Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh.

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