Be on the lookout for these spookily-named plants and fungi this Halloween!
Ghost Flower, or corpse plant, is a non-photosynthesizing flowering plant that gets energy from fungi connected to trees. While the ghostly white glow has faded by this time of year, be on the lookout for the brown seed capsules.
Doll’s Eyes’ (Actaea pachypoda) black-dotted white fruits persist into the fall. While the fruit is highly toxic to humans, they are eaten by ruffed grouse, robins, mice, and moles.
Witch’s broom is a deformed tight cluster of shoots that forms when the hormones of the tree’s growing tips are disrupted by parasitic plants, fungi, insects, bacteria, viruses, or genetic mutations.
Witch’s butter is a jelly fungus that shrivels when dry, and absorbs moisture into a gelatinous buttery blob after rain.
Witch hazel’s bright petals and sweet-smelling nectar attract winter moths through the fall.