Photo: Walter Siegmund (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Pinedrops

Pterospora andromedea

Also known as Woodland Pinedrops, Giant Pinedrops

At a glance

Family

Ericaceae (heath family, subfamily Monotropoideae)

Type

Perennial mycoheterotrophic wildflower; entirely without chlorophyll

Parts used

Historically, the whole dried stalk; modern use is essentially undocumented

Size

1 to 3 feet tall (30 to 100 cm), a single stout, unbranched reddish-brown stem

Bloom

Early to late summer, June through August, with rows of small, urn-shaped cream to pale pink flowers

Habitat

Deep needle duff beneath mature pine, fir, and spruce forests, from mountain slopes to boreal woods across North America

Acquisition

Forage

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Historic topical folk use

Noted in traditional digestive remedies

Held ceremonial or protective meaning

A genuine forest floor curiosity

Traditional uses

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Long before botanists understood how it survived without a single green leaf, pinedrops caught the attention of the people who shared its forests. Several Native nations of western and northern North America, including Gosiute, Paiute, Shoshoni, and Washoe communities, are recorded as having used infusions or decoctions of the plant for stomach complaints, kidney and bladder troubles, and as a wash or poultice for sores. The Cheyenne are said to have valued the dried, rust-colored stalks for their own reasons beyond the physical, keeping them as a plant of protection. Because it cannot be cultivated and rarely grows thick enough to gather without harm, pinedrops never became a mainstay of any materia medica, but it remained a quietly respected part of forest life and lore.

How to grow & use it

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Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

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✦ Growing guide
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Choose it when

“For the forest floor's strangest magic trick, look for the rust red stalk that never bothered to turn green.”

Did you know?

Pinedrops never bothers to turn green. It has no chlorophyll at all, so instead of making its own food from sunlight, it taps directly into the underground fungal threads wrapped around a nearby conifer's roots and quietly draws off sugars the tree made through photosynthesis. Its dried, wiry red stalks are so sturdy that they often stand through an entire winter, long after the flowers and forest around them have gone quiet.

Safety

Pinedrops has no reliable record of food or medicinal use, so no safe dose can be given. It's also rare or endangered across much of its range and dies when dug up, so it's best left growing wild rather than harvested.