SQUAWROOT 
Conopholis americana (Linnaeus filius) Wallroth 
Squawroot is a curious plant, suggesting in its appearance, because 
of the absence of gteen coloring, a fungus rather than a flowering 
plant. The thick and firm but fleshy stems often grow indense clumps, 
the flowers nestling in the axils of bracts and forming a dense spike. 
The whole plant is pale yellow or brownish, and gtadually withers 
to a deep brown, the stems persisting until late summer, when the 
seed pods ate matuted. It grows in rich woods, often about the bases 
of trees, the flowets opening as early as April. 
-Squawroot tanges from Florida and Alabama northward to Maine, 
Ontario, and Michigan. Another closely related species is native in 
the Southwestern States and in Mexico. 
The specimen sketched grew near Washington, District of Co- 
lumbia. 
FLATE 214 
