Woodland pinedrops looks like a plant that forgot to turn green. It sends up a single unbranched, sticky, reddish-brown to reddish-purple stalk up to about 3 feet tall, with only small scale-like leaves near the base and a long column of hanging, urn-shaped flowers, pale yellow to pinkish white.
The reason is how it feeds. Pinedrops makes very little chlorophyll and does not photosynthesize. Instead it draws its nourishment from a soil fungus that is also linked to the roots of a conifer, especially pines, tapping into the underground connections between fungi and trees. Botanists call plants like this mycoheterotrophs.
Because it depends on particular fungal and tree partners, has short-lived seeds that are hard to germinate and does not transplant well, it should be enjoyed where it grows. It is rare enough in parts of the eastern United States to be listed as threatened or endangered there, though it is common in western conifer forests.
Look for fresh stalks in summer in conifer forest, especially where ponderosa pine is common. After flowering the stalks turn stiff, brown and woody and stand through the winter, so you may spot last year’s dry spikes before the new ones appear.
How to identify it
A single unbranched stalk about 1 to 3 feet tall, reddish brown to purplish, sticky with glandular hairs and lacking green leaves. Many small, hanging, urn-shaped flowers, pale yellow to pinkish white and about a quarter inch long, line the upper stalk. Old stalks persist as dry, brown, woody spikes.
Look-alikes
Pinesap is another non-green plant of conifer forests, but it is much shorter, yellowish to pinkish throughout, and carries only a few larger flowers that nod in bloom and turn upright as the fruit forms.
Habitat
The humus of conifer forest floors, often where ponderosa pine is dominant. It is widespread in the West, with scattered populations east to the Great Lakes and New England.
Sightings in the forest
365 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 11, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →