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:
Wow!!! I just spent a half hour chipping ice from my car (ugh), and you have green leaves! (sigh...)
Life in the "South"- does it get much better? I dont think so. How pretty.
Neat! Have you ever found a "lawn orchid" in your...uh,lawn? They are pretty cool.
I also spent lots of time scraping ice and snow off my truck today. And I didn't find any leaves. Bahhh..
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...
i love these forest rambles with you!
I'd glad that you come along!
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
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