When does Ghost Pipe bloom in Virginia?

Most often in May. Across 437 dated, research-grade observations of Monotropa uniflora in Virginia, the flowering season runs roughly May to November.

Peak May In flower 437 Examined 506 State Virginia

Flowering 437 in flower of 506 examined

96%

92%

93%

69%

80%

74%

80%

Proportion of examined Monotropa uniflora in Virginia in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	0	0	too few examined
Feb	0	1	too few examined
Mar	0	2	too few examined
Apr	1	1	too few examined
May	23	24	96%	80% to 99%
Jun	134	146	92%	86% to 95%
Jul	173	187	93%	88% to 95%
Aug	44	64	69%	57% to 79%
Sep	32	40	80%	65% to 90%
Oct	25	34	74%	57% to 85%
Nov	4	5	80%	38% to 96%
Dec	1	2	too few examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Monotropa uniflora in Virginia observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 437 of 506 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Virginia found Monotropa uniflora in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Virginia, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Monotropa uniflora

Ghost Pipe

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Virginia. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.