November 24, 2024
Author: Phyllis Root
Photographer: Kelly Povo
On a day when fall’s colors have mostly faded and fallen, we go looking for putty-root orchid–not the orchid’s flowers, which are long done blooming, but their distinctive leaves, one to a plant.
Why look for putty-root orchid leaves when there are no flowers? In Minnesota, putty-root grows in the deciduous forests of the southeast part of the state. Although its flowers don’t need sun, its leaves do. And sun only really reaches the forest floor in the fall when trees have lost their leaves and also in the following spring before the trees leaf out. Putty-root’s flowers themselves are delicate and hard to spot, so finding the long, green, pleated-looking, striped leaves in fall (and remembering where we found them) is the best way we know to find putty-root flowers the following spring. Once the plants flower, the leaves will die and new ones grow again the following fall.
We’ve looked long and closely for putty-root leaves in several places, but this time we’re searching in a new-to-us location: Louisville Swamp Trail in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
The morning is chilly and gray. Almost all of the leaves are off the trees, but we’re amazed to still see so much color. American bittersweet vines with their bright orange fruits sprawl alongside the path. Sumac berries have turned a deep red. Splotches of grey and mustard-colored lichens brighten a dead branch. Green moss cushions rocks. Yellow-orange berries indicate horse gentian plants, but early horse gentian or late horse gentian? Whether in flower or fruit, the two horse gentians continue to flummox us.
Under the tree branches we begin our search in earnest for putty-root leaves. We look, we look, we look–and then we find them, obligingly standing upright among the brown oak leaves covering the ground. Kelly takes photos, I count at least eleven separate putty-root leaves, and we note the location and jubilantly plan to return in spring to see the flowers.
And really, it’s only a few months until flower chasing season begins again. We’re happy to wait while the putty-root leaves soak up sunlight, while the earth orbits the sun and days grow longer and warmer again until spring when, with any luck, we’ll find putty-root orchid flowers blooming.
A very good thing to hope for in the darkening time of the year.
Stop by our Holiday Show on December 7, 2024, from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. to talk wildflowers, hear more about our upcoming book, Chasing Wildflowers, or purchase one of Phyllis’s children’s book or our book, Searching for Minnesota’s Native Wildflowers….email flowerchasersmn@gmail.com for all the details!
