Flower ID?

[nartreb]

I'll try to go back and get a photo in the next couple of days.

Overall size and shape eerily similar to indian pipe, including occurrence in little clusters. No visible leaves. Stem is greyish and furry with no scales or joints. Flowers are pure white, tube-shaped with spread petals at the distal end (like a narrow penstemon with a bulge at the proximal end), five petals; with a couple of bright yellow structures (stamens?) visible inside the tube. One flower per stem.

Disturbed (grasses, poison ivy, various weeds), partly-shaded (oak, maple) currently-dry ground near a muddy puddle in an area that has been bulldozed within the last twenty years. Low altitude, eastern Massachusetts.

 

[audrey]

Orobanche uniflora (cancer-root)?

http://www.em.ca/garden/native/nat_Orobanche_uniflora.html

 

[nartreb]

That's it, thanks! (Mine didn't have yellowish stems, but I found other photos that matched the color better.)

It's on the federal Noxious Weed list and on the Prohibited list in Massachusetts, along with at least three other species growing within twenty feet of that spot.

 

[Pat T]

Or maybe a pinesap?

Looking forward to seeing a picture.

Pat t

 

[arghman]

It's on the federal Noxious Weed list and on the Prohibited list in Massachusetts, along with at least three other species growing within twenty feet of that spot.

how odd, it's native, kind of uncommon, and doesn't seem to be aggressive (I had 1 stem of it pop up in my lawn, haven't seen any for several years) -- it parasitizes on various things but I don't know which species.

 

[nartreb]

Yeah, it's weird that a parasitic plant would make the list. It turns out the Massachusetts list includes the whole Federal list, which lists the whole broom-rape genus, despite the fact that some species are rare enough to be the subject of state conservation efforts. Other species are clearly invasive in some areas and do significant economic damage. Interesting sample here:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/em/em8884-e.pdf

 

[nartreb]

I had trouble getting an unobstructed shot, this'll have to do: