That reminds me of a similar plant my friend brought back from trip in J & K. For few days we thought it to be a fungus till we finally identified it as Balanophora involucrata. I published this as popular science article under the title "A flowering mushroom".
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Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/