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If Woodrow's diagnosis is correct....and I think it probably is.....and since the previous owner did a lot of landscaping.......I would guess perhaps they dug in a lot of organic material....compost.....mulches. If so that organic material might be "feeding" the "sugar stick" invader. It does make sense.
The geographic location and range is the spoiler in this theory....but who knows.
PS there is a member of that family that is native to NJ.... Allotropa convexifrons. I haven't found anything written in "lay-persons" language but I did find it when I googled.....as native to NJ.
My suspicion is some seeds came in with the landscaping done by the previous owner. The climate in NJ is similar to it's natural habitat.
It is parasitic on a specific fungi. So I suspect the culprit was a load of mulch or soil etc and the fungi spores were there also
If Woodrow's diagnosis is correct....and I think it probably is.....and since the previous owner did a lot of landscaping.......I would guess perhaps they dug in a lot of organic material....compost.....mulches. If so that organic material might be "feeding" the "sugar stick" invader. It does make sense.
The geographic location and range is the spoiler in this theory....but who knows.
PS there is a member of that family that is native to NJ.... Allotropa convexifrons. I haven't found anything written in "lay-persons" language but I did find it when I googled.....as native to NJ.
That's in the animal kingdom not plant kingdom. Look at the Taxinomic chart. Some sort of insect based on your link.
However the plant does appear to lack chlorophyll and the growth environment does seem to be what would be favorable to plants similar to "Indian Pipe" "Sugar Sticks" and other alotropa relatives. Although outside of "Indian Pipes" I can not find any native to NJ.
I am going on the assumption this plant is not a NJ Native species as it does not seem to match any species native to the area.
Sadly the best way to obtain indisputable identification of a plant is through the flower structure. Kind of difficult to do since we seem to be well past the flowering season.
It seems there is very little online information regarding the alotropa group.
"Beech drops" - they live in the roots of beech trees.
You have any beech trees on your property?
YES!!! It appears the mystery is solved! I live in a forested area with mostly beech, oak, and tulip trees and the greatest concentration of these plants is between 2 big beech trees in the front.
Thanks again to everyone for your help, and especially to Bulldogdad for finding the ID.
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