Rachel Stepek · Forest Rainbow

The Appalachian spectrum

White & Cream

translucent white · soft white · ivory · cream

Ghost Pipe opens White & Cream in translucent pink-white, followed by the branching ivory of White Coral Fungus. Flowers and fungi carry the chapter through clear white, soft white, and warm cream.

Translucent pink-white

Ghost Pipe

Monotropa uniflora

Translucent ivory stems rise from russet leaf litter in waxy clusters, each one bent beneath a nodding, urn-shaped flower. Soft pink-beige shadows collect along the ridges and curled edges, while wet leaves, gray twigs, and dark soil deepen the surrounding floor.

Research Grade

Field fact and source

Ghost Pipe is a flowering plant in the same family as heathers and cranberries. Chlorophyll is absent, and the plant gets sugars through mycorrhizal fungi associated with tree roots. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew →

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Ivory white

White Coral Fungus

Clavulina coralloides

A dense ivory body rises from blackened wood in hundreds of fine upright branches. Cream shadows deepen inside the coral-like mass, while wet leaf litter, splintered charcoal bark, and fresh green plants make the ivory crown the brightest form on the forest floor.

August

Field fact and source

White Coral Fungus can itself be colonized by another fungus. Helminthosphaeria clavariarum can turn the ivory branches gray to black and reduce the crested growth at their tips. Burke Museum Herbarium →

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Clear white

Mountain Camellia

Stewartia ovata

Held toward a shaft of sun, one white flower opens from a leafy twig, its cupped petals surrounding a dense burst of butter-yellow stamens. The hand, glossy deep-green leaves, and blurred gray stone below keep the bloom connected to the wooded slope where it was growing.

June · Research Grade

Field fact and source

Mountain Camellia brings the tea family into the Appalachian forest: it is a small understory tree related to cultivated camellias, with large white flowers opening in summer rather than spring. Conservation: Kentucky: Vulnerable to Apparently Secure. NatureServe →

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Soft white

Multiflora Rose

Rosa multiflora

Loose clusters of blush-white roses fill the leafy canopy, each five-petaled flower opening around a ring of warm golden stamens. Fresh chartreuse leaves, arching green canes, and higher branches place the blush-white blossoms in a dense wall of growth.

May · Research Grade

Field fact and source

Multiflora Rose was introduced for uses including rose rootstock and living fences, but it can form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. Ecological status: Nonnative and invasive. USDA Forest Service →

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White with blush

Great Rhododendron

Rhododendron maximum

Bell-shaped flowers shade from pearl white to a light shell pink, their upper throats freckled with tawny green-brown spots. Thick evergreen leaves frame the close blooms, while the wider view returns the flower clusters to a dark creekside thicket.

June · Research Grade

Field fact and source

Great Rhododendron is concentrated in the southern Appalachians and blooms later than many other rhododendrons. Its evergreen thickets favor moist, acidic, organically rich forest soils. NC State Extension →

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Clear white

Buttonbush

Cephalanthus occidentalis

One open flower head radiates hundreds of slender pink-white styles from a warm coral center, creating a delicate sphere of pins. Smaller ivory-green globes wait nearby among red stems and broad, deeply veined leaves striped with afternoon sun.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source

Each Buttonbush globe is a cluster of many small tubular flowers. The shrub is especially well suited to wet places, including streambanks and lake edges, and its flowers attract many pollinators. University of Kentucky →

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Soft white

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain

Goodyera pubescens

Two slender flower spikes lean beside a gray tree trunk, each one lined with tiny cream-white blossoms and round buds. A fern-green leaf crosses the stems above wet copper litter, moss, and dark bark at the base of the tree.

Research Grade

Field fact and source

This native orchid grows as a basal rosette. Its evergreen, silver-veined leaves can remain alive for three to four years. USDA Forest Service →

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Warm ivory

Jellied False Coral Fungus

Sebacina schweinitzii

Short ivory branches rise in tight, waxy clusters, some blunt and clubbed, others divided like small antlers. Cream tips glow against russet leaves, thin green grass, dark soil, and the scattered stems of the hardwood floor.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source

The flattened, blunt-tipped ivory branches are the fungus's visible fruiting body. Belowground, the fungus forms a mycorrhizal partnership with hardwood roots, exchanging nutrients within the forest soil. Ohio Department of Natural Resources →

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Cream

Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom

Sparassis spathulata

A cream-colored fruiting body billows from the leaf litter in a dense fountain of thin, curled ribbons. Warm beige shadows trace every translucent fold, while gray twigs, dark earth, mossy bark, and a tree trunk encircle the ruffled mass.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source

Geography and tree partners help separate lookalikes: Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom is the eastern North American Sparassis associated with hardwood forests, while close western relatives are more strongly associated with conifers. University of Wisconsin mycology →

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Warm cream

Lynx Paw Oyster

Pleurotus levis

A warm cream cap projects from a dark split in the tree, its underside opening into ivory gills that sweep back toward the attachment point. Wider vertical views show the small fan against rough gray-brown bark, black hollow wood, lichen, and the green forest beyond.

Research Grade

Field fact and source

Fungal names can move while the organism stays the same. NCBI currently lists Lentinus levis as the accepted name and Pleurotus levis as a homotypic synonym—a name based on the same original type. NCBI Taxonomy →

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Photographs and field notes by Rachel Stepek · Field exploration with Nathan Stepek