Penn State study shows strange, pale ghost pipe plant is in demand

Despite a long history of traditional medicinal use in the United States, the collection, consumption and efficacy of the peculiar forest plant aptly named ghost pipe remains a mystery.
Now, with social media and the internet driving a resurgence in the harvest and economic trade of the parasitic species – which appears strangely white because it is devoid of chlorophyl – a research team from Penn State has taken the first step toward documenting its new status.