Gnome Plant

The Gnome Plant, Hermitomes congestum, is a very rare plant, so rare that it is not even listed in the wildflower books I have for this area, but strangely is not even on any lists of rare or endangered plants for the state of Washington. It is without chlorophyll or leaves and lives off decaying material in the soil. This example was photographed along the Poodle Dog Pass trail in the North Cascades, where we found three or four plants. This is in flower and is just pushing up through the litter on the forest floor, which also gives some idea of its small size. It does grow a little taller, so that the flowers are perched atop a short stem, but the flowers are open almost as soon as it appears from the ground.

ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/poodle-dog-...