#puttyroot orchid

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

I found some puttyroot orchids with the seed pods still on them!

I’ve never seen them bloom; like the crippled cranefly orchids, they’re not very showy, and just don’t stand out in the summer woods. But in the winter, their leaves sure do. The seed pods are also similar, but significantly larger (hand for scale).

[thebashfulbotanist]

Orchids in Fall

You might not think of orchids as temperate or fall/winter plants, but here in Virginia it’s a great time to look for orchid leaves right now in November!

Three species are pictured here - the cranefly orchid, Tipularia discolor, at top, and the putty root orchid, Aplectrum hyemale in the middle. They’re easily distinguished by the tiny pinstripe white veins on the putty root orchid and the more solid green with well-spaced purple veins on the cranefly orchid. The leaves of these orchids die back when they begin to bloom in spring (putty root orchid) or late summer (cranefly orchid) and regrow in the fall. The flowers are small and occur on a single, leafless stalk.

At the bottom is the distinctive rattlesnake plantain orchid, Goodyera pubescens. This plant gets small white flowers on a single stalk when it blooms in summer. Unlike the other two orchids pictured here, the leaves don’t ever die back.