Thank you so much. The links are great and, indeed, these are the same
growths that I found. I look forward to reading everything on the links
you sent. On the first link, I did not find that NM was listed as
having the squawroot. I will read more carefully and maybe send them a
note, later.

Thanks again for your willingness to spend your time to educate me.

LaUna Guinn

Harvey Schmidlapp wrote:

LaUna wrote:


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.