Unlike most plants, it is white and does not contain chlorophyll.[9] Instead of generating food using the energy from sunlight, it is parasitic, and more specifically a mycoheterotroph. Its hosts are in the Russulaceae family.[9] Most fungi are mycorrhizal, meaning that they grow symbiotically in association with tree roots. Through the fungal web of mycorrhizae, the M. uniflora roots ultimately sap food from where the host fungi are connected to the photosynthetic trees.

Sick. Note that plants generally fall on a spectrum between food-generating from sunlight and parasitism through their roots; though generally, plants don’t just steal nutrients from fungi, they exchange nutrients with them, i.e. it’s a mutualistic relationship.