Unlike most plants, it is white and does not contain chlorophyll. Instead of generating energy from sunlight, it is parasitic, more specifically a myco-heterotroph. Its hosts are certain fungi that are mycorrhizal with trees, meaning it ultimately gets its energy from photosynthetic trees.
Please contribute!This page is a profile for the plant species Monotropa uniflora, used to collect records of where and when this plant was observed blooming, and for providing identification information for use in dichotomous keys. If you would like to help collect data for this or other plants, see Bloom clock project/How to Contribute for orientation.