Puttyroot Orchids

Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Believe it or not it's easier to find Puttyroot Orchids in winter in our area than at any other time. Look for light green leaves with white parallel veins sticking up just above the leaf litter. And don't pick the leaves! Each plant makes only one leaf per season and it won't make a new one if the lone leaf sticking up is plucked.

Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

The Puttyroot Orchid sends up its tough, leathery leaves in the fall (when the trees are losing theirs) collecting the weak winter sunlight and storing it in its bulb-like root. In the spring when the trees again leaf out the orchid's leaves die back and disappear. Toward the end of April or the first part of May the orchid sends its flowering stalk up and the plant blooms. However don't look for the blooms of the Puttyroot Orchid in any corsages. The flowers are small, inconspicuous and dark purplish brown, and while not unattractive they're far from showy. They are followed by brown seed pods, which are often still visible when the new leaf appears in the winter.

The Puttyroot Orchid is one of three species that are easily found on winter hikes. The other two are the Cranefly Orchid (dark green warty leaves with purple backs) and the Rattlesnake Plantain Orchid – our only evergreen orchid – with fuzzy green leaves with lots of broad white veins. All are low to the ground (to conserve as much heat as possible) and none of the leaves are bigger than your hand. The Craneflys die back in the summer like the Puttyroots

Suggest a link! Send suggestions to Webmaster