Dear Dr. Science:My dad never really came back from the Woodstock Festival in 1969, and so he is extremely interested in wild mushroom harvesting. His motto is that he'll try anything once. I learned from a biologist at Western, that you need to be extremely cautious when consuming wild mushrooms, since some are lethal. In fear that my dad may eat something that causes more than just hallucinations, I try and go with him every chance I can and take along my Mushroom Identification Manual. Anyways, last weekend when my dad was out looking for some fun, and I was out supervising, we found this small white organism. It looked like a fungus of some sort but it wasn't in the book. I convinced my dad to stay away, picked it and later found a picture on the web. Apparently this small white organism is a plant called Indian Pipe. How can it be a plant if it's completely white? Don't all plants need to photosynthesize to create sugars? And doesn't photosynthesis require chlorophyll...which turns the plant green?
Thanks, Concerned Teen