Question

what.jpg   QUESTION: Hi there, a friend of mine noticed this plant growing in a park in B.C. Canada and we were wondering what it might be, If you could identify this for me I would be very great full , Thank you

ANSWER: Hi Debbie,

This looks like a parasitic plant of the family "Monotropaceae", probably "Pinesap".  These plants do not make their own food, but attach themselves to the roots of other plants, or fungi living in the soil.  It appears to be growing on top of another plant - perhaps a moss?, or anemone patens (Prairie anemone, Pasque flower).  Very interesting find!

Thanks,
Susan

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again,, thank you for the quick reply to my question, unfortunately although this plant does resemble "Monotropaceae", probably "Pinesap", none of the pictures I could find online showed any sign of leaves of any sort, just the flowers emerging from the leaf litter,, whereas the picture my friend took clearly shows several large outgrowths with multiple developing leaves on the shaft of what looks like a large head of smallish flowers. There are also a few more of the same plant in the picture, smaller with not much flower yet, but with clearly defined leaves developing, looks to be close to maybe a puddle or source of water, maybe something that likes to grow in marshy type land, as the ground in this  area is very wet, with large pine, spruce and other trees and very mountainous. Any other plants you could think of? Thanks again.
Debbie

Answer
Hi Debbie,

Thanks for pursuing this, as I am as interested as you are in arriving at a positive ID.  I sent your photo to the Native Plant society of British Columbia, along with your description of where the plant was found, etc.  Hopefully, they will respond soon.  It might be easier for us to communicate via direct email, if we have to do a lot of "back and forth".  My email is

[email protected]

If they cannot immediately identify it, they might at least direct us to another BC native plant expert who can.  In the meantime, I'm going to keep researching it.  Please email me so I can let you know, should I stumble across it in some database.

Thanking you,
Susan Tabor