Addisonia 25 



(Plate 205) 



HYPOPITYS INSIGNATA 

 Crimson Pine-sap 



Native oj the eastern United States 



Family MonotropacEae Indian Pipe Family 



Hypopitys insignata Bicknell, Bull. Torrey Club 41: 413. 1914. 



Growing from the leaf-mould and decaying vegetable rubbish of 

 deciduous woodland where taller plants and undershrubs abound, 

 the crimson pine-sap would be little noticeable but for its brilliant 

 coloring. A nearly related larger species of similar habit, but of 

 sallow hue, does not quickly take the eye even when exposed on the 

 little occupied open floor of the pine woodlands where it freely grows. 



Unlike the multitude of autumn plants whose buds and flowers 

 at length appear after a long period of growth, the flower-buds of 

 this plant are found fully formed when the stem pushes up out of the 

 ground. They are crowded together in an inverted cluster which 

 straightens up as the stem rises higher and the flowers unclose. 



The plant has been reported definitely only from the coastal 

 region of Massachusetts and lyong Island, although it must have a 

 far wider distribution. It is curiously local, however, in the places 

 where it has been found — a single patch, or one here and there, in 

 wide tracts of woodland which everywhere seem to repeat the very 

 conditions of the particular spot that has brought it to a perfect 

 growth. Its capsules are packed with seeds innumerable, possibly 

 for the very reason that they are not readily spread. They are 

 very minute, and it does not come to mind what may be the agency 

 of their dispersal unless it be the wind. A wind, strong indeed, 

 that might chance to carry seeds to a far distance, could alone 

 effectively reach these lone plants in their protected retreats. The 

 loose extended testa of the seed is light and chaffy, and although 

 the plant is succulent it is of good substance and, dead and brown, 

 remains erect and stiffly upholds its seed-pods throughout the winter. 



This plant is perhaps our very latest one to break the soil, and 

 its prompt flowers are not brought out until September and October. 

 It inhabits dry oak woodland, but has also been found in rather low 

 ground under red maples. There is a similar plant of shaded hem- 

 lock woods that is of an intense dark red color, but of this little is 

 yet known. 



