One of my neighbors threw out a cracked 10 gallon glass aquarium the
other day. It doesn't hold water, but I figured to try a temperate
decidious forest floor ecotone tank. Maybe have some limited mosses
and a muchroom and then maybe a larger herbaceous plant providing a
"canopy" of sorts.

Although I presume I can propogate mushrooms and mosses relatively
simply, I have always found the little clumps of indian pipe
interesting, and was wondering if these could possibly be incorporated
into the system.

Does anyone have either any experience with this plant or know of any
sources from which to read? There doesn't seem to be much scholarly
publication on this plant, at least that I could immediately find.

Sorry for cross-posting this, but I figured that the readership would
be different between the groups and that the topic applies equally to
the scope of both groups, and therefore a cross-posting would be
justified. If otherwise, I'm sorry.


Robert the Bearded.

PS: I'm using the google groupes feature to post this, so I don't
exactly know how it will turn out.

To cultivate Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) would require a tree as
host and a mycorrhizal fungus to connect the parasitic Indian pipe
with the host tree roots. A terrarium would probably not be required as
Indian pipe has no need for transpiration because it has no
photosynthesis.

There has been quite a bit of research on Indian pipe because of its
unusual nutritional mode. However, I am not sure if any researchers
have perfected an indoor cultivation method. Perhaps it could be grown
on oak or pine seedlings indoors. You might possibly succeed by
transplanting an Indian pipe into a pot with some host tree seedlings.

You might try emailing some Monotropa researchers and see of they have
perfected a cultivation method. Indian pipe cultivation has some
commercial possibilities. I could see a market for potted Indian pipe
as a novelty houseplant and for biology teaching.


References

Could Indian pipes have dropped photosynthesis through evolution?
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...3947.Bt.r.html

Symbiotic germination and development of the myco-heterotroph Monotropa
....
http://www.bio.ic.ac.uk/research/bid...HLeake2004.pdf

Structural features of mycorrhizal associations in two members of the
Monotropoideae, Monotropa uniflora and Pterospora andromedea.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q..._uids=15490255

Myco-heterophytes and parasitic plants in food chains.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab6/hershey/myco.pdf