Janice wrote:

Are they truly parasitic living from the live roots from live trees?
The reason I ask is that last url says that he'd seen one growing on a
piece of *wood* in a cave, not a plant. So do they live on decaying
wood of any kind.. including dying tree roots like fungi?

I've never seen these things, but I've not been too far either, and
not for many years!

Janice


Janice, these are truly things that grow on the roots of live trees. In
this case, the trees are oaks.

In the case of one being found on a "piece of wood in a cave", the only
thing I can think of is that possibly an old root with an existing
growth somehow got into the cave. Not knowing the cave, it could be
that it floated in during a flood, or was carried in to be used as
firewood. Who knows?

Since finding the first "colony", I have found more on what seem to be
the roots of another oak that is near the first tree. Later today, I
will probably go and look around another grove of oaks that is located
far from the first ones. I am interested to find out if the squawroot
infects all of our oaks. I wonder how that would happen? I really
can't find out very much about them on the net. I guess I will try the
library the next time we go to town.

LaUna