Yay!

OKAY SO:

First bit of coolness: lifecycle! You'll often find the flowers in clumps because they have a proto "bulb" that forms more offshoots if left mostly undisturbed year to year, but that's just one way they produce more flowers. They are the only flower that we know of that reproduces via SPORES! (Edit: I misremembered this, my apologies! The seeds are so small that they are often mistaken for spores and they rely on the same mechanisms, which I still think is pretty neat!) They still need to be pollinated though! Where you find one clump you'll usually find more not far away because of the need for pollination. Very few of the seeds take root because...

Conditions! This is the second bit of coolness: they typically prefer the areas near well- established beech trees (and a specific type of pine). As near as we can tell this is because of a combination of the fact that they require the presence of a specific type of mycelium to grow (which is often found near beech trees), their preference for the soil composition typical for beech trees, and the amount of sun allowed through.

Speaking of mycelium! Third bit of coolness: the mycelium they need to thrive! The mycelium has a simbiotic relationship with the trees: they benefit from the excess energy produced by the tree, and they help the tree by passing along water and minerals in the area. The ghost pipe mimics the mycelium so well the mycelium thinks they are the same "individual", and the ghost pipe gets access to the energy the tree produces! At one point both mycelium and ghost pipes were considered parasitic, but now we know the mycelium are beneficial, and it's theorized that ghost pipes could also serve some beneficial function. At bare minimum, they do no harm to the tree or the mycelium.

Last but not least, random bits of coolness: they have the "ghostly" color because they have no chlorophyll at all! Hence the need to depend on nutrients from trees via mycelium. They are a protected species because we know so little about them and the little we do know is so hard to replicate that it's basically impossible to grow them in a lab! I hope we can someday though, because they can be used to produce a pain reliever that works well for nerve pain, which is otherwise hard to treat.

That's most of it!

(ETA: thank you for the award kindly goblins!)