Plant is entirely white when active (late spring through early fall), and turns black when dead.  Photograph below shows typical cluster of stems, leafy bracts, and flowers.  Flowers become upright as fruit matures.  Plant is a mycoheterotroph, obtaining its energy from a mycorrhizal fungus, which in turn gets its energy from another, autotrophic plant (Hershey DR.  1999.   Am Bio Teacher 61(8): 576).  Because Indian pipe is an indirect parasite of the autotrophic plant, it is sometimes referred to as an epiparasite.  Common in moist woods where soil is covered by layer of decaying leaves. Photographed in Georgian Court University's pinelands.

July.