It seems that we were on Yakushima at around the same time :) We have also seen many flowering Mitrastemons. Also some Balanophoras:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/101759368
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hahahha covid plant
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I saw ghost pipes once and didn’t know what they were! I thought they were some kind of strange fungus maybe. I did get a picture though: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/53965561
The other strange plant I know of is coralroot, which parasitizes a fungus!
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It’s funny to me to see all these comments on ghost pipes. They are so common in my area I seem to find them all the time, I’ve even had them pop up in my yard twice now. But I remember the first time I encountered them, I was just as puzzled over what they were. Just shows how easily we can forget how odd something is to others if we’ve gotten used to seeing it.
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@annkatrinrose Good point: ‘strangeness’ is relative depending on where your patch falls in the species’ ranges. In Northwestern Ontario, Canada, where I live, ghost pipes are rare. iNat only has about three dozen research-grade observations over the region (which is vast - larger than California). Most of your observations appear to be from North Carolina, a much smaller jurisdiction where iNat has more than 1,650 records.
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Thanks for a fun and interesting thread.
The most fascinating local plant to me might be frostweed (Verbesina virginica)
The name “frostweed” refers to its tendency to produce “frost flowers” from its long stems in freezing weather.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4910558
One I never gave much thought to because it’s so prolific, but which I have learned amazes some visitors new to our region is ballmoss (Tillandsia recurvata), which isn’t a moss at all but rather a seed bearing variety of bromeliad. We had guests who gathered some of it up to take to a friend and apparently some enterprising people sell it on Etsy, which amuses us where we consider it somewhat of a nusiance.
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For me the strangest plant I have seen is this one: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/81895-Neottia-nidus-avis
It doesn’t seem to be rare but when I saw a stand of them on a trip to Europe last summer I had no idea what it is - probably my biggest surprise ever when inaturalist told me it’s an orchid, and in full bloom at that. Compared to monotropa uniflora and corallorhiza odonthoriza they are huge, but grow in a similar habitat (in the middle of the darkest pine forests where nothing else grows…).
Both ghost pipes and coral roots are very common where I live in Ohio so I don’t consider them so strange anymore myself.
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And when people who know about dodder travel to the tropics, they often misidentify dodder laurels as dodder. Convergent evolution: they look very much like dodder, but are in a different family.
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The Osage Orange from here in Oklahoma looks like a small brain that grows on a tree!
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In Texas:
Purple Passionflower: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1701773
Panicled False Indigo looks like an alien tentacle monster: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28099250
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@wetlandfan introduced me to this tiny Ohio carnivore: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/52658-Drosera-rotundifolia
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Not in the part of the country I live in, but Pecteillis radiata is an interesting plant. Flowers look like a bird taking flight
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You post that photo and then call the plant strange?? 
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No stranger than my profile picture.
Not just in the tropics. We do ID jobs for Biosecurity of dodder laurels misidentified as one of the non-native dodder species fairly frequently.
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https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/311268-Hydnora-africana is an African parasitic plant with a flower that is shaped unusually
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