this native orchid is called putty root. it may be fairly common in the south and mid-atlantic region, but it has been hard to find in upstate ny. it used to be fairly common, but in colonial and former times, the roots were used as a glue to hold together broken pottery. it must be around in different places but we hadn't seen this species in new york until last week. having received directions from an undisclosed source to an undisclosed location, we wandered around a bit until finally finding the colony on just about the highest point on a hill. (I did have a gps location but my reader wasn't cooperating because the previous operator had set it to 'power saver' mode,... (I wonder who that was? 
)
there were a few other interesting plants there as well. one thing I should point out about putty root, is that instead of leaves emerging in early spring and the flowers coming up later, the single leaf of this plant comes out in mid-fall, usually early to mid october. if a flower does come up in the spring, the leaf has started to fade and is withering away as the plant draws the moisture and nutrients from the leaf back down to the root, and then using that to fuel the growth of the flowering stem. as a result, the best time to look for putty root is in the fall and early winter, when most other vegetation has cleared away and sometimes a light snow covering the ground will make it almost easy to see the single upright leaf rising out of the snow. also if a plant has flowered, the tall flower stem can be seen fairly easily. we found sixteen leaves and none had any old flower stems, so maybe that's a sign that next year they will have flowers!
checking out the main colony
ken looking back wondering when i'll figure out how to use a gps reader
a cool plant called 'walking fern'
wildflower called 'herb robert'
looks like an 'elbow tree'; maybe it has an Ent as an ancestor
next four pics documentation of each of sixteen plants
rest of pics in reply thread
)there were a few other interesting plants there as well. one thing I should point out about putty root, is that instead of leaves emerging in early spring and the flowers coming up later, the single leaf of this plant comes out in mid-fall, usually early to mid october. if a flower does come up in the spring, the leaf has started to fade and is withering away as the plant draws the moisture and nutrients from the leaf back down to the root, and then using that to fuel the growth of the flowering stem. as a result, the best time to look for putty root is in the fall and early winter, when most other vegetation has cleared away and sometimes a light snow covering the ground will make it almost easy to see the single upright leaf rising out of the snow. also if a plant has flowered, the tall flower stem can be seen fairly easily. we found sixteen leaves and none had any old flower stems, so maybe that's a sign that next year they will have flowers!
checking out the main colony
ken looking back wondering when i'll figure out how to use a gps reader
a cool plant called 'walking fern'
wildflower called 'herb robert'
looks like an 'elbow tree'; maybe it has an Ent as an ancestor
next four pics documentation of each of sixteen plants
rest of pics in reply thread
