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gnome plant

Hemitomes congestum

Photo by KarenSaxton
Published on Project Noah
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43.5757, -124.175

Field Notes

Description:

ranging from pale pink to dark burgandy, I am pretty sure this was David Gerrold's inspiration for the Chtorrans

Habitat:

woodland forest

Notes:

I believe this is on of those symbiotic species: much like lichens, that are a fungus and another plant working together

Species ID Suggestions

Gnome Plant

Hemitomes congestum

Reference Link
ScottRasmussen
3

Comments (15)
KarenSaxton
Kathleen, thanks for the reminder. We were hiking again this same time of year(the Sunday after the 4th) and saw some and I could not remember the name
KathleenMcEachern
HI Karen. I enjoyed this older spotting of yours. I have been looking through my backlog of photos and posted one I took last year of a Gnome Plant in Manning Park, BC. This was a lifer for me! I hope to see more of them next week on my camping trip there.
Michelle Parish
I just posted another one believed to be one of these gnome plants. I see them often in and near Sisters, OR! I am still trying to definitely determine if it's same. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/7447704
KarenSaxton
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/6902613 I found and posted the dark purple red ones I found last year on a different trail
KarenSaxton
If they're rare elsewhere, they're common on the southern oregon coast!
ScottRasmussen
These are really strange and beautiful plants. for whatever reason, I'm really drawn to flowering plants that lack chlorophyll.
Dan Doucette
Thanks Scott for the ID. This is a great spotting. Apparently these are very rare, little is known about their life cycle.
ScottRasmussen
@ auntnance123, I also think it is a Monotropa relative. Hemitomes congestum?
auntnance123
They seem to have the same translucent quality a indian pipe (momotropa); possile they're related?
KarenSaxton
I do, somewhere in my files - from spring 2010. I went looking for it one day and couldn't find it. The pink stuff has already pretty much disappeared. It only lasts for a very short time: like mushrooms, fungi and myco-heterotrophs. Both of these come up and then pretty much disappear just as chanterelles start coming up.
Dan Doucette
That's good. I think it would be interesting to keep an eye on it. Do you have a photo of the red version?
KarenSaxton
It's in the forests around - generally in douglas fir, but might also be in cedar. There is also a much darker red, almost maroon version that grows in sandier soils
Dan Doucette
This might be some kind of parasite or a symbiotic species, like you say. Are you able to go back and see what it grows into?
Photographed
PublishedJuly 4, 2011

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