Indian pipes first discovered in Mt. Ailao

The staff at Ailao Mountain nature reserve recently discovered a dozen of Indian pipes, or ghost plant, in Zhenyuan county, southwest Yunann’s Pu’er city.

Feeding on rotten organisms, the plant sometimes looks waxy white because it has no chlorophyll for photosynthesis. It grows in the dense forests of the mountains at an altitude of 800-3,850 meters.

It was discovered for the first time in the Ailao Mountains and listed as near threatened (NT) in red list of higher plants in China.

Reporting by Lin Changyun and Wang Bo(Zhenyuan Digital Center); Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi