Plant ID PNW

Hello! I've done a bit of unsuccessful research in an attempt to figure out what this plant is. I saw this little patch and another about three feet away. Ah! And this was in the Cougar Reservoir Area in the Willamette National Forest (Oregon).

Thanks for readin'!

-

It reminds of this plant, which a parasite that grows on the roots of the local cistus.



Here's a link to a page with more info, just in case it's of interest. Cytinus hypocistis

It looks a lot like that plant! I'd say it's probably a root parasite of some sort as well?
It's interesting, the Cytinus hypocistis doesn't produce chlorophyll, like Monotropa uniflora, which I made a topic about, too. It seems I was very attracted to non-photosynthesizing-plants/organisms this weekend ^.^
Hmm, I still haven't identified the plant that started this topic, but I think Cytinus hypocistis is puttin' the search in the right direction. Thank you!

Kaeyli, that looks like a Gnome-plant (Hemitomes congestum) to me. I've stumbled upon these rare plants before while picking mushrooms in the Cascades or along the Oregon coast. According to Donald Eastman, in Rare and Endangered Plants of Oregon, "some authors place this species in the Indian-pipe Family of plants (Monotropaceae) which includes all the closely related Heath Family saprophytic or mycotrophic plants". These plants are usually found in unlogged areas and hang out with their fungal friends in the shade of ancient trees. Here is the entry from the Encyclopedia of Life, see if this matches your find:

http://eol.org/pages/585662/overview

M.K. Dorje Jr. wrote:that looks like a Gnome-plant (Hemitomes congestum)

what an amazing plant! Looks like you're a lucky person to see one-everything I looked at had "rare" somewhere in the description...

Oh, my! It is definitely a Hemitomes congestum. Thank you, M.K. !

From what I've read it does seem to be pretty rare, Leila; I feel so lucky to have seen it ^.^

This was a good lil' article on it:

http://www.botany.org/Parasitic_Plants/Hemitomes_congestum.php