Monday, January 16, 2006

Native orchids

Scouting around one day the first winter we moved here, we found what we later identified as Puttyroot Orchid leaves. They're easy to find in the winter, or at least easier than in the summer when they bloom. I thought so anyway, until we started trying to find them again.

We found lots of Cranefly Orchids (Tipularia discolor) instead.


Like the Puttyroots, the Cranefly Orchid leaves remain green throughout the winter. Sometimes they have a few bumps or none at all.


Most of the time they have several.


The underside of the leaf is purple.

The Cranefly Orchid is fairly common. I was happy to find them, but it wasn't what I'd been looking for.

We searched and searched in vain.

I couldn't find them in the area where I thought I'd seen them before. I was ready to give up. Then of course we found them somewhere else.


Several Puttyroot Orchids (Aplectrum hyemale) all together!


The leaf in winter feels dry like parchment.


The back side is green.

The blooms of these orchids are nothing to write home about, I suppose. They bloom in the summer, and this time I made note of their locations so I can find them again when the woods are dense.

8 comments:

Lorianne said...

Wow!!! I just spent a half hour chipping ice from my car (ugh), and you have green leaves! (sigh...)

KFarmer said...

Life in the "South"- does it get much better? I dont think so. How pretty.

R.Powers said...

Neat! Have you ever found a "lawn orchid" in your...uh,lawn? They are pretty cool.

Happy and Blue 2 said...

I also spent lots of time scraping ice and snow off my truck today. And I didn't find any leaves. Bahhh..

Rurality said...

Lorianne, they are evergreen, if that makes you feel any better! I did not have to dig through snow to find them though... :)

Thanks KF.

FC I had to look that one up - I hadn't heard of it before - haven't seen one either. Not that we have much of a "lawn" anyway!

Happy just wait, global warming will fix that right up for you...

Anonymous said...

i love these forest rambles with you!

Rurality said...

I'd glad that you come along!

Prem said...

You can read even more about orchids native to Florida (many of which venture into the rest of the US) at this website:

Florida's Native and Naturalized Orchids