WOODS, WATERS, AND WILDLIFE
Specter of the forest STORY AND PHOTOS BY W.H. “CHIP” GROSS
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enjoy reading — always have. One of my favorite books is Wilson Rawls’ 1961 classic, Where the Red Fern Grows. The author reveals the origin of the title of his fiction novel through his young protagonist, Billy Colman, who lived in the Oklahoma Ozarks: “I had heard the old Indian legend about the red fern. How a little Indian boy and girl were lost in a blizzard and had frozen to death. In the spring, when they were found, a beautiful red fern had grown up between their two bodies. The story went on to say that only an angel could plant the seeds of a red fern, and that they never died; where one grew, that spot was sacred.” Ohio has its own version of a “red fern,” a plant eerie and haunting, mysterious and ephemeral, yet at the same time beautiful and delicate — it’s known as “ghost plant” or “ghost pipe.” Native American tribes were familiar with it, which is why the plant is sometimes also called “Indian pipe.” To botanists, it is Monotropa uniflora. The plant grows in such deep, dark forests and is so short-lived that I’ve only seen a handful during a lifetime of wandering the woods. One was growing along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, spotted during a day hike with my wife. Several other plants I’ve stumbled across here in Ohio (not literally, thankfully), but not often. Each serendipitous find is truly a special event to be celebrated and, of course, photographed.
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OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • AUGUST 2022
