Yellow Bird's-nest

Yellow Bird's-nest, Monotropa hypopitys.  High Elms Country Park, 21 July 2012.

Under the trees in some woods you might find plants that are not at all green, and are not fungi either.  Like many fungi, they parasitise other plants.  Examples include the Bird's-nest Orchid, Toothwort, and this one, the Yellow Bird's-nest.

This grows in long drifts in High Elms Country Park.  It gives the appearance of following the roots of trees, and for good reason; it parasitises the fungi that form relationships with tree roots, the mycorrhiza. 

Just another of the interesting things you can find if you know where to look ... I didn't; I had to be shown.