The Experts Reply

I emailed the Janet Novak at the CT Botanical Society, Tom Volk and Keith Dawson regarding the differences of opinion re the relationship of Indian pipes to other plants. I heard from Janet Novak of the CBS and Tom Volk. Below you can read their response to my inquiry.

(Janet’s response)
Thanks for letting me know about your posting. Just a quick note on what Indian pipes is related to. I think everyone agrees that pinesap and Indian pipes are related species. The controversy is what plant family they both belong to. The traditional view is that they are in the blueberry family (also known as the heath family; formally known as Ericaceae). Some scientists now believe that these plants deserve their own family -- the Indian pipes family (formally, Monotropaceae). I chose to use this information on the Connecticut Botanical Society web site because I believe it is the best information currently available. On the other hand, it is always possble that new evidence will come to light, and Indian pipes will be put back into the blueberry family.

Rhododendron is another plant in the blueberry family, so Keith Dawson has valid reasons for saying that Indian pipes is related to Rhododendron. Assuming evergreen laurel is the same as mountain laurel, that is also in the blueberry family. On dogwood, however, he is simply wrong -- dogwood belongs to a totally different family.

A good source for information on plant relationships is the US Department of Agriculture's PLANTS database. If you go to the page for Indian pipes, look about halfway down the page under the heading "Related Taxa". It gives you the option of seeing the plant's closest relatives ("view 2 species in Monotropa") and everything in the same family ("view 8 genera in Monotropaceae").
Regards, Janet

(Tom’s response)
Hi Beverly. Your blog is fun.

The only one that’s amiss in there is dogwood, which is in another family. Rhododendron, pinesap, blueberry, cranberry etc are all in the Ericaceae.

Hope this helps
---tom

********************************************
Tom Volk
Professor of Biology
3024 Cowley Hall
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601 USA
volk.thom@uwlax.edu
http://TomVolkFungi.net

You notice I left in the part where he says my blog is fun? I have absolutely no shame! And darn proud of it! ☺☺

As for Keith Dawson, he is elusive. Every email address for Keith that I have been able to find is no longer a good address. They keep coming back to me. I have put one more inquiry out on him (at twitter.com) and if I ever get a response I’ll let you know. He seems to be a computer/webpage builder guru; thinks highly of himself and moves around a lot. However, I fear by the time I do hear from him, I will have forgotten what it was I wanted him for. He was quoting from someone else, though, and may not know the answer to the Indian pipe relationship (Most of the information… is taken from Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles, a 1993 book by Jack Sanders.). If you follow that link it takes you, ultimately, to http://acorn-online.com/index.htm. I think I’ve followed this as far as I care to.