The message
from Sacha contains these words:

I went to the chiropractor this morning and in exchange for sorting out my
neck and giving him a cheque, his wife presented me with something she
wanted us to ID. We have no idea. It look a bit like asparagus when
tightly closed but is a dark, reddish-bronze and when open just has little
sort of lippy things sticking out each side all the way up the stem. She
didn't give me a height but it sounds like about 12". She said that last
year she had a couple of spears and this year there's a couple of clumps.
--

Could it possibly be a member of the broomrape family - Orobanche or
Lathraea? Orobanche alba is reddish coloured and is a parasite on wild
thyme.

See: http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/bioref...Orobanche.html

Janet G