LaUna wrote:
I was walking in the forest near my home which is located in the
southern Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. Our elevation is just over
7700 feet. Maybe growing zone 6, but it gets very cold. The forest is
composed mostly of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and some kind of oak trees.

I found these things, maybe a fungus, and I have not ever seen anything
like them before. I have gone through my mushroom field guide and there
is not anything close. I have posted photos on Webshots and the ones in
question are named Mystery 15-21. Click on the photo for a larger view.
One of the photos has my (ladies') glove in it for size reference. The
largest of these things is about 4 inches tall and about an inch wide.
We had 24 degree weather last night so it may be that the ends of the
"spikes" wouldn't be brown otherwise. Who knows? This is the link
http://community.webshots.com/album/4757066UMJvxXIobH.

If you can identify these, I certainly would appreciate it. My curosity
is just about to kill me.

They certainly are odd things and the first time I came across them in
the woods I thought they looked like some sort of pine cone, growing up
out of the ground. The thought of fungus also crossed my mind. They
are neither. They are called squawroot or cancer-root and they are
parasitic on the roots of trees. They have no chlorophyll or leaves.
The one I'm familiar with is Conopholis americana but yours are more
likely C. alpina given your location.

http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant...i?symbol=CONOP
and pictures:
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/galle...ails&pagenum=1

http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H48.htm

Nice pictures.

--
Henry