Yellow bird's nest

You probably wonder what exactly you are looking at if you are lucky enough to fine yellow bird's nest. Besides being a rare plant, it doesn't contain chlorophyll and therefore is not green. This means it doesn't need sunlight and can also grow in very dark places, such as forests. Yellow bird's nest lives off of fungi to get the necessary food. Its leaves, which look more like scales, cover the single stem. Yellow bird's nest can be found in damp, humus-rich dune valleys, along with sea buckthorn or creeping willow, and in forests on humus-rich sandy or loamy soil. Sometimes, it is the only seed plant found in dark (pine) forests. 2011 was a very good year for yellow bird's nest in the Netherlands. Hundreds of specimen were found, particularly in the dunes and estates in North-Holland.