[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to freaky fauna Friday, where every Friday we take a little time and explore some of the freaks of nature from around the planet.

[SPEAKER_01]: We cherish so deeply.

[SPEAKER_01]: So please jump aboard and let's explore the wilds together.

[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to freaky flora right a plora.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the Great and Peace [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm Jay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, it's Friday already.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's Flora.

[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, a little twist.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Wouldn't rave that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Excited.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're the one that told me how we had to do this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I did.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you remember what Flora?

[SPEAKER_02]: How long ago is this?

[SPEAKER_03]: Ah, right a while ago.

[SPEAKER_03]: Within the month.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, really?

[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm, freaky Flora.

[SPEAKER_03]: Ah, I don't remember what I told you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Ghost pipes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Of course, ghost pipes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Which is not a mushroom.

[SPEAKER_02]: But no, I can't maybe.

[SPEAKER_02]: I cannot tell you how many people are convinced that they're mushrooms.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they look like mushrooms.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're not.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost pipes are a very pale white wild flower.

[SPEAKER_02]: It thrives on mushrooms.

[SPEAKER_02]: Aha!

[SPEAKER_02]: One of the few mushroom parasites, mushroom and parasite flower.

[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a parasite on a parasite inception.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost pipes are known as Indian pipes.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a couple other names form corpus plants or another one.

[SPEAKER_03]: That makes sense.

[SPEAKER_02]: which they don't grow on corpses, but they're used to be, like, uh, like, white tails around that kind of thing that where they ever they popped up as where somebody was like murdered or buried there or something like that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, wonderful.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's not good.

[SPEAKER_03]: They mean they look like a Halloween flower.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they look like some stranger thing stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, with the white and the purple and they look like chemicals and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But to some of their pollinators, they don't look anything like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, also known as indie pipe gets a name from their ghostly white color, and resembling the Native American peace pipes of the day.

[SPEAKER_02]: Which I see it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they're they're very similar to that shape.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're they're they're candy cane like hook, but they turn out a little bit at the end.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it looks like a little just a little pipe.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've only seen peace pipes and museums.

[SPEAKER_02]: A turtle island museum in Chicago, south of Chicago, wouldn't really the city of Chicago.

[SPEAKER_02]: But.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's the Turtle Island Museum, everybody's in the area.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's really cool for some Native American stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: But they have some Beast Pipes there, neat.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost Pipes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Also known as, again, Indian Bipes or Quartz Flowers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Or White, Waxy and Translucent Wild Flowers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Found at North American Forest.

[SPEAKER_02]: Various names come from the ghostly color and resemblance to the Native American Beast Pipes, like we were already said.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the skeptical brain stem and spine look that they have as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I could see that too.

[SPEAKER_02]: They very much look like a brain stem and the spine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Native American tribes would use Ghost Pipes to treat nervous system disorders, anxiety, colds, fevers, and pains.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are kind of all in one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost pipes are in the or and Indian pipes are used by Native American medicines to treat paints and anxiety.

[SPEAKER_02]: Chewing on the flowers was a common remedy for two things.

[SPEAKER_02]: And infusion of the leaves could be used to treat colds and fever.

[SPEAKER_02]: We actually have two tinctures going to these guys right now.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: We've had this going.

[SPEAKER_03]: We've had them go since August and they're finally cleared up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, because they turned like it turns purple and then black, and then it's supposed to go green, but I think we messed up a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think we didn't get the measurements quite right.

[SPEAKER_02]: So now it's like a clear blue.

[SPEAKER_03]: Probably still potent.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's as good as we're going to get the first try.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's math.

[SPEAKER_02]: There is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we didn't do it because we were because they want to want to my facts.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get here in a second is after you pick them.

[SPEAKER_02]: They don't last long.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's why we had to do it so fast.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: So according to Cherokee legend, so Indian pipe grew from the ashes of two warring tribes who were fused to make peace with each other while smoking the peace pipe.

[SPEAKER_02]: This made the great spirit unhappy.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the tribe chief were punished by being turned into these flowers shaped like peace pipes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So they're basically the two chieftains of these warring tribes.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're smoking a piece of paper, but would not, they were refusing to make peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that made the great spirit.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not really, really great with Native American fully mythologies in religious ceremonies and that kind of stuff, but I believe that's their god, like their figurehead, like that's the guy or the thing at the top.

[SPEAKER_02]: It come on, man.

[SPEAKER_02]: The thing, uh, so made the great spirit very unhappy because it's when the piece pipe is very, very sacred.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're already smoking the piece pipe and you're refusing to make peace, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just you're stirring the pot.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: So according to the Cherokee legend, the indiated pipe grew from the ashes of these two warring tribes when once again refused to make peace, and it said that the cheese of the Cherokee and the eastern tribes met to settle a conflict over a piece of pipe but argued for seven days straight and seven nights straight.

[SPEAKER_02]: The great spirit was so unhappy with both of the fighting and the smoking of the peace pipe without making peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's why the great spirit punished these people turned into flowers, the shapes of peace pipes.

[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, so why are they white?

[SPEAKER_02]: Why are they ghostly colored?

[SPEAKER_02]: You know for plants.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's very odd.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost pipes don't have any chlorophyll and they don't photosynthesize Which is wild for a plant are freaky you could say very freaky flowers get all their nutrients from tree roots via the mushrooms that they feed on Okay, so the mushroom the mushroom my cereal network so remember they only other non fauna we did was Bob I believe [SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you move back to listen to Bob in this episode, the Mycelio, the High Fee Networks are changing nutrients out of trees, feeding them, taking stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: These guys are hijacking into that and feeding themselves, so they're fully parasitic.

[SPEAKER_02]: Where you could say the mushrooms are probably more closer to symbiotic.

[SPEAKER_03]: working with the tree.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because they won't want the tree to die.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, but they're given stuff to the tree and they're getting stuff from the tree.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost pipes aren't giving anything back.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're, they're fully parasitic.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost pipes and like most plants, uh, don't put us in the size because they don't rely on sunlight for energy.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this also gives in the false illusion that people think they're from caves and that kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: That I think sometimes like in Appalachia they'll go around cave mouths and I think that's more of there's just caves everywhere in Appalachia.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think since they just look they're rare, very rare and then they die very quickly.

[SPEAKER_03]: It makes sense, too.

[SPEAKER_03]: Why people would think that?

[SPEAKER_03]: It's no photosynthesis.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's usually where the like the blind cave fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: There's no light.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have no eyes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Pale skin.

[SPEAKER_03]: Flower looks the same.

[SPEAKER_02]: Emily Dickinson called the Indian pipe the preferred flower of life with the flower appearing to cover of the first volume of the Dickinson's poems.

[SPEAKER_02]: According to the Emily Dickinson's museum, Emily Dickinson corresponded with notes and small tokens with women who would eventually become her first post-mortious editor.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mabel Lumus Todd.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mabel sent this painting of Ghost Pipes, and you can look up the Mabel Lumus Todd painting of Ghost Pipes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's kind of where we're at, like you got famous in the 1890s.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ghost Pipes are very, very rare.

[SPEAKER_02]: And with not knowing what to do, they should not be picked.

[SPEAKER_02]: The flowers are extremely delicate, and they will wilt and die once even touched.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a thing never take like if you want to harvest goes pipes or anything like that look into it first They are very strong native medicines.

[SPEAKER_02]: We don't we're not medicine advocates here I use experts or and not experts.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we are medicine advocates, but not experts.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not that either What I'm not telling people you they should do it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I do it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's me I'm not telling anybody here.

[SPEAKER_02]: They should do anything [SPEAKER_03]: No, no.

[SPEAKER_03]: You shouldn't.

[SPEAKER_03]: Should does not exist.

[SPEAKER_03]: You either do or do not.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: But these leagues, uh, uh, like, they're really cool to see.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, the time you found them was only the second time I've ever seen them.

[SPEAKER_02]: As first for me, as hacking hills are knocking hills.

[SPEAKER_02]: Inspiration hills are a church camp always had them in a couple spots.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, why are they so rare now, is that they are only found on mature ancient forest or long-lived forest, and those are degone going, yeah, very, very rare in the U.S.

from clear cutting from the 17 and 1800s, and then the logging practices of the 1900s and the 20th century, and in the modern days, [SPEAKER_02]: It's very, very detrimental to what we call is a established forest environments.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, go as pipes are what we call an indicator species, okay?

[SPEAKER_02]: When you see them, that's generally really good.

[SPEAKER_02]: Does it mean there's a great mycelial network, which is once again the fungus, which plays into the tree economy, which is the group and number of species and individuals present trees.

[SPEAKER_02]: So while Ghost Pipes aren't directly responsible for that dichotomy, they are a great indicator species of that dichotomy being present.

[SPEAKER_03]: They benefit from it existing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: They only exist in that dichotomy.

[SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: So no tree can exist by itself where it can exist in a forest of ancient Oaks.

[SPEAKER_02]: Looking at an oak tree isn't a good way to tell, but you see ghost pipes on the roots of an oak tree.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's when you know.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's other indicators species.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've talked about like salamanders, our great indicators species.

[SPEAKER_02]: And most of the areas I had to work in, they just didn't have salamanders.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Just not good areas.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why are you in the bad areas that weren't like bad.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just didn't have because they were they're so sensitive that they're, they're, they're, they just go they're the canary in the coal mine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, I just seen a guy that was caving super deep and in cave.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he got very, very scared because something like crawled out him, there's a huge green salamander.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, really?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: A state-nangered here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: But they love rocks and caves and they're really good climbers.

[SPEAKER_02]: But he just seen something little like coming out of him.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's way, way deep in this cave.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's like, it's not a rodent, but something's coming at me.

[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds green salamander like, what are you doing down here?

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, but yeah, so good spikes are really fascinating.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, we don't do many flora and it's not it's just because it's not my expertise, I guess.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm definitely a fauna guy.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I agree.

[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, there's a reason why 60% of them are fish and then another 20% of our amphibians.

[SPEAKER_03]: There.

[SPEAKER_03]: Um, you're area expertise.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, Ghost Pipes are really cool and you'll go on hiking trail.

[SPEAKER_02]: Go look for these guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, once again, unless you're I don't advise you picking them so [SPEAKER_02]: Once again, they need certain areas.

[SPEAKER_02]: People try to sell seeds of them.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen it.

[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't work.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: They do produce seeds.

[SPEAKER_02]: But if that wisely on that work isn't there, they're not going to go.

[SPEAKER_02]: They don't have anything to feed on, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So they're not like normal plants.

[SPEAKER_02]: They are a part of a very complex ecosystem.

[SPEAKER_02]: The day cannot exist outside of.

[SPEAKER_03]: What if we could recreate that?

[SPEAKER_03]: Like have your, I don't know, like I can't to grow your own ghost pipe.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's impossible not impossible, but because of the conditions to create old growth forest Yeah, you'd have to have like you'd have to have an old growth forest I guess so you can't really bring that home, can you like you could like buy a whole bunch of live 80 foot tall oak trees.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, there you go and inject them into the ground and then inject that my silly old network I then three or four years get some coach bite [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's probably best just to go out and look for them.

[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, don't pick them if you do buy them, don't pick them all at once.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's always safe sustainable practices for harvesting of anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you look up your state laws, because they are protected in some states.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you can even touch like even some states you are allowed to pick them for herbal remedies and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: They rot so fast, so immediately.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, like within an hour, they're just like, like jelly juice.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, they're just gal, they dark and crump that, yeah, they're just crump.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, within an hour and we had them on ice, they were already like black wanting to turn.

[SPEAKER_02]: but hope you guys enjoyed this, it's a little different, but if you want anything else suggest, like, send us email, send us messages, suggest free you fauna, I enjoy it when you guys suggest it because it just makes it easier on me.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, send more freaky flora and we like that too.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, I do.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's neat.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe I'll do the largest predatory plant on Earth.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, did we already cover that and crips to the corn podcast?

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that was crypto botany, though they weren't discovered.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're the largest discovered.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay, okay, on the books.

[SPEAKER_02]: On the books.

[SPEAKER_02]: Gotcha.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're pretty big.

[SPEAKER_03]: Forshaddley.

[SPEAKER_02]: The size of Simis.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's a lie.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: I have been the great and peaceful mystery.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I've been Jay.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll catch you next week, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to Freaky Fat on the Friday.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to help the podcast grow, remember to share and give it a 5 star review.