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Gnome plant
I don't often go back to the same spot, but this park is just way too much fun - it's small slice of lowland/coastal forest that has remained relatively untouched due to it's being owned by the federal government and used as a coastal gun emplacement for many years. Now it's a state park with a forest that is prime habitat for saprophytic plants - plants that do not use chlorophyll or sunlight for food, but use decaying organic matter instead. Orchids, Indian pipes, ground cones and gnome plants - all saprophytes and all can be found here.
''Hemitomes'' is a monotypic genus of plants containing the single species ''Hemitomes congestum'', which is known as gnome plant and cone plant. This rare and unusual plant is native to the west coast of North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in dense, dark forests such as the redwood forests of the region. This is small, fleshy, stemless perennial plant forming lumps in the leaf litter. It is white, yellowish, or reddish-pink in color. Little is known about the life.. more
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