Fungus Fact Friday

Category: Literature Connection

#112: Monotropa uniflora, Ghost Plant, Indian Pipe, or Corpse Plant 0

Fungus Fact / Literature Connection / That's Not A Fungus!

#112: Monotropa uniflora, Ghost Plant, Indian Pipe, or Corpse Plant

On September 30, 1882, Emily Dickinson wrote the following in a letter to Mabel Loomis Todd: That without suspecting it you should send me the preferred flower of life, seems almost supernatural, and the sweet glee that I felt at meeting it, I could confide to none—I still cherish the clutch with which I bore it from the ground when a wondering child, an unearthly booty, and maturity only enhances mystery, never decreases it— The previous week, she had received a gift from Mabel Todd: a painting of Monotropa uniflora.  These ethereal plants happened to rank among Emily Dickinson’s favorite wildflowers, thus prompting the response above.  In the same letter, Dickinson gave Todd the poem “A Route of Evanescence” in return for the painting with a note explaining, “I cannot make an Indian Pipe but please accept a Humming Bird.”  Many people have likened the Ghost Plant to the reclusive...

#008: “A Glow in the Dark” 0

Fungus Fact / Literature Connection

#008: “A Glow in the Dark”

Literature Connection: “A Glow in the Dark” from Gary Paulsen’s Woodsong [text here]. I remember reading this short story for an English class in grade school, probably sometime in October.  It was only after re-reading this story for this post that I realized how much of the story had stuck with me over the past 7 to 11 years.  Maybe now I know I found it so compelling.  We were most likely learning about suspense at the time, which is why I decided to use this story for the Fungus Fact Friday post before Halloween.  After reading this story and my explanation, you should never again question whether or not fungi can be scary.