Green in Winter: Puttyroot Orchid

The woodland native Aplectrum hyemale takes an unusual approach to getting sunlight for photosynthesis. It produces a single leaf in autumn, and this leaf persists all winter while abundant sunlight reaches the forest floor (hyemale = of winter).

The leaf withers away in spring as the tree canopy closes in, and in June the plant can be found with a leafless flowering scape. Flowers and scapes are tan, brownish, and/or purplish, and there is a bright lemon yellow form (f. pallidum) that is occasional in northern Indiana, especially in LaPorte County. In the photo above, it appears that some fungus took a lichen to the fallen tree limb.

Outwitting the Wily Orchids

Dan, Dan, the orchid man McDowell, my mentor for all things botanical, is fond of saying, "Peter, the neat thing about orchids is they can hide, but they can't run." But knowing this to be true is not always helpful in finding the less showy members of the orchid family.

There are three woodland species of orchids here in Indiana that can neither hide, nor run, during the winter months. The green over-wintering leaves are easy to spot among the decaying leaf litter on the forest floor. Find those leaves now before the green-up, mark their location with a GPS and return later when they are in bloom, and likely to be hidden by closely growing associates.

(1) Aplectrum hyemale
Common name: puttyroot, Adam-and-Eve orchid

(2) Tipularia discolor
Common name: crane-fly orchid

(3) Goodyera pubescens
Common name: downy rattlesnake plantain

Aplectrum hyemale sends up a single leaf in late September which is usually shed when the flower stalk is present in May. It is common to find an abundance of leaves at a winter location only to find a few flowering stalks when you return in the spring.




This is the rarer greenish form of Aplectrum hyemale forma pallidum which grows at a site in LaPorte County.


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Tipularia discolor, like the puttyroot, Aplectrum hyemale, produces a single leaf in September which is absent during flowering. I recently counted 22 leaves of this species at a LaPorte County site in April, but found only one flowering stalk when I returned in August.


Note the purple underside of the leaf of Tipularia discolor.



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Unlike the preceding two species, the strikingly patterned foliage of Goodyera pubescens can be found throughout the year, and is present during flowering in July and August.

None of the pictures on the latest post would expand, so here's another try!

Winter Greens

A surprising number of native plants are green in winter. It would be interesting and fun to list them sometime, and maybe even do a slideshow. Here are a few I’ve seen recently:

Gaultheria procumbens, Teaberry, Wintergreen. This plant was called “Petit the des bois” (little tea of the woods) by the French fur trappers in North America. Amazingly, it’s a shrub - albeit vertically challenged! Sometimes regarded as a "subshrub."

Tipularia discolor, Crane Fly Orchid. This plant produces a single leaf in autumn and takes advantage of ample sunlight reaching the forest floor in winter. When it flowers in summer it is scapose, that is, having a “scape” (leafless flowering stem) and the scape is without chlorophyll. It is named for Tipula, a genus of Crane Fly that the flowers resemble. Some Orchids are thought to mimic the look of insects so well as to mislead the insects to attempt copulation, thereby transferring pollen. Orchid mimicry is amazing, and well worth a little browsing time on the Internet. I don’t know whether anyone has actually seen Crane Flies on this plant, but it would be fun to watch a flowering colony during the night and document what shows up. And who says freckles can't be attractive? Just look at Yasmine Bleeth!

Aplectrum hyemale, Puttyroot or Adam-and-Eve Orchid. This is another Orchid that produces a winter leaf (hyemale = of winter), but the flowering scape on this one sometimes has a little greenish cast to it. The leaf has a very strange texture, sort of crinkly like cellophane, and the veins are extremely tough, like reinforced shipping tape. One sometimes finds a leaf that’s been chewed a little and then left alone. Perhaps they are too tough to bother with or they taste bad. Both of these Orchids are common south of the Chicago Region but rare as hen's teeth around here.

Finally, a frozen pool at Ambler Flatwoods, just for fun.