Indian pipe

American  

noun

1. a leafless, pearly white, saprophytic plant, Monotropa uniflora, of North America and Asia, having a solitary white flower and resembling a tobacco pipe.

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Indian pipe British  

noun

1. a white or pinkish saprophytic woodland plant, Monotropa uniflora, of the N hemisphere, with a solitary nodding flower resembling a pipe: family Monotropaceae

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Etymology

Origin of Indian pipe

An Americanism dating back to 1785–95

Example Sentences

Indian pipe is a ghost of a plant: It lacks chlorophyll, so it can’t make its own food with sunlight the way most plants do.

From Slate • May 17, 2016

Vipan, stretched at full length beside the camp fire, smoking his long Indian pipe, looked the very picture of languid repose.

From Golden Face A Tale of the Wild West by Mitford, Bertram

I can smoke my own pipe in turn, but when the Indian pipe comes around, I am nonplused.

From Canyons of the Colorado by Powell, John Wesley

The amiable baronet, moreover, presented him with twenty guineas, as Ledyard says, pro bono publico, and with which he tells us, "he bought two great dogs, an Indian pipe, and a hatchet."

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 328, August 23, 1828 by Various

But what of the delicate Indian pipe which gleams out from the darkest aisles of the forest?

From The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year by Beebe, William