An Indian Pipe plant exists for most of the year as a root mass under the ground that is covered with a dense mat of fungal hyphae. Like trees, Indian Pipe convinces the fungus to feed it minerals through the hyphae.

Indian Pipe goes further. Somehow, it convinces the fungus to also give up sugars.

The sugars Indian Pipe gets weren't produced by the fungi. They came from the tree with which the fungus is associated. So, in effect, the Indian Pipe is parasitizing both the fungus and the tree.

By tapping into the relationship between the tree and the fungus, the Indian Pipe gets a free ride. It doesn't have to produce carbohydrates or find minerals.

Indian Pipe probably uses some of the same chemical cues trees and fungi use in their relationship. The unwitting hosts may be chemically duped into sharing with Indian Pipe.

The ancestors of Indian Pipe were green plants in the same family as blueberry and rhododendron. They carried on photosynthesis and had relationships with fungi just like almost all other plants.

But somewhere along the path of evolution, these plants figured out how to continue getting minerals from the fungi without giving anything back. And somewhere along the way, they figured out how to get the fungi to pass on sugars from trees.