Please Help Me Identify These

 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.

Thanks,
LaUna, near Cloudcroft, NM

 LaUna wrote:

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_profile.cgi?symbol=CONOP
and pictures:
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/gallery_page.cgi?earl=gallery.cgi&category=genus&classes=all&sort=scisort&txtparm=Conopholis&wetland=all&origin=all&results=thumbnails&pagenum=1

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

Nice pictures.

--
Henry

 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:


http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/gallery_page.cgi?earl=gallery.cgi&category=genus&classes=all&sort=scisort&txtparm=Conopholis&wetland=all&origin=all&results=thumbnails&pagenum=1  

 LaUna wrote:

If you look at the first (large) map, you will see two regions shaded
green.  The area to the east of the Mississippi (plus Iowa) is for
Conopholis americana.  The area including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado
and Arizona is for C. alpina.  Note the two smaller maps below that that
show the reagons for each species.  This page is just for that one species:

http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant_profile.cgi?symbol=COAL6

--
Henry

 Yeah, I looked again and saw that NM was included.

I was in a hurry this morning to get out into my garden and do some seed
planting.  I think by the time everything comes up, we will be through
with the 24 degree weather.  Interestingly, I put out broccoli, cabbage
and onions plants about 6 weeks ago and we had a foot of snow about 2
weeks ago and everything is fine.

Thanks again,
LaUna

Harvey Schmidlapp wrote: