Fringed Pinesap (Pleuricospora fimbriolata)
Table Rock Trail, Table Rock Wilderness, OR 8/2016.
Easy to miss, and difficult to identify (many wildflower books don’t even mention it), this chlorophyll-lacking saprophyte/mycotroph is found in the same evergreen forests as plain old pinesap (another heath), but less often. The flower heads barely rise above the forest floor. It appears only on the west coast, from Washington’s Olympic Peninsula down to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
This plant is nearly indistinguishable from another, Hemitomes congesta, or Gnome Plant. After much deliberation, we now believe that the photos here are Fringed Pinesap, but may be mistaken. If you know for sure either way, please comment.
Table Rock Trail, Table Rock Wilderness, OR 8/2016.
Larch Mountain, Columbia Gorge, OR. 6/2014.
Table Rock Trail, Table Rock Wilderness, OR 8/2016.
nwwildflowers 
I have never seen these or even heard of them before, but I will definitely be on the lookout for Fringed Pinesap (or or Gnome Plant) while hiking though coniferous forests from now on. Thanks for sharing these photos and information.
August 12, 2016 at 2:30 pm
I just stumbled across this plant today in the forest north of Diamond lake, Oregon. I’d never seen them before so I took pictures. When I got back to cell phone service, I googled “flowering fungus” and found myself here eventually. 🙂 Thank you for identifying these! I’ve been wandering around the woods of the west coast for 30 years and had never seen them before today.
August 1, 2020 at 4:22 pm
Glad to help! Thanks for visiting our site.
August 2, 2020 at 5:42 pm
I think these are probably gnome plant, because (1) they’re pinkish, and (2) the interior of the flowers appears to be hairy. I didn’t learn about this second trait until recently.
September 25, 2020 at 9:54 pm