(Re) Searching for Cranefly Orchids in the Home Woods
November 7, 2025
Woods, with Silas
Woods, with N.T.
Back in 2020, I had one of my most exciting discoveries in the Home Woods – the presence of native Cranefly Orchids (Tipularia discolor)! Well, the leaves – I've wanted to find out if the colony ever sent up a blooming stalk, but … I've had trouble finding them again. I was successful in October 2021 when I searched again, and thought that I had made a good mental picture of the location, but evidently not good enough. I did make another exciting discovery that day, though – a colony of young White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda), also called Doll's Eyes, near the Cranefly area.
I wrote about that exciting first time I found the Cranefly Orchid plants. That can be experienced by checking out this blog post: Pandemic Discoveries: Home Woods: 2020-2021: Introduction and Part I: https://terriofthetrails.blogspot.com/2021/10/pandemic-discoveries-part-i.html
I researched Cranefly Orchid, learned a great deal (including the odd and fascinating way the flowers are pollinated) and put that information in the blog post.
[This also led to the discovery and reading of a mystery novel; The Cranefly Orchid Murders, by Cynthia Riggs.]
I made more attempts, now and then, to locate the Cranefly Orchid plants, knowing which slope they were on, and a very broad section of that slope that I thought included them. But how far along that slope area were they? And how far up the slope from the Creek? What was around them? I remembered the White Baneberry/Doll's Eyes patch, but where was that, exactly? Those plants are not evident all year. And where were the Cranefly Orchids in reference to the Baneberry?
Obviously, this is not a slope that I frequent often.
It is funny, the quite serendipitous, quite accidental way that I first found the little Cranefly Orchid colony in 2020. It is also serendipitous, and sort of accidental, and rather humorous, how I found it again. Read on for the funny adventure.
The very dark green leaves of Cranefly Orchid show up in late summer or fall and stay all winter. They are not large and always look as if they've just started emerging from the ground. They fade off and disappear in the spring. In place of the leaves, if conditions are right, a stalk arises that will have tiny green-brown orchid flowers along it, blooming from bottom to top. These and the very slender stalk are not easy to see in the summer whilst surrounded by greenery and other colors. I still want to find out if my colony blooms, but I knew I had a better chance of finding the dark leaves in the fall, and before many tree leaves had fallen to cover them.
November 7th seemed to be a perfect time. The woods had been turning golden but there was still plenty of green. At most, fallen leaves had created one light, fluffy layer on the ground. The weather and other conditions were perfect that day. Most importantly, I felt physically able to go explore!
I would be traversing the slope to the southeast of where I entered the woods.
It's normally not a good idea to walk that way, all along a slope in one direction, one side of the body lower than the other. I would do some climbing up and down, here and there, but my right leg let me know later, very strongly, that mostly putting up-slope pressure on that side was not a good idea
But (spoiler), it would all be worth it.
First, though, I turned to my left for a bit. I knew there was a colony of Puttyroot Orchid (Aplectrum hyemale), also known as Adam-and-Eve, which are very similar to Cranefly.
Puttyroot Orchid leaves
I figured that seeing those would help train my eyes for the Cranefly search. The leaves of Puttyroot are generally not as dark as Cranefly, and they have a pinstripe design on top. Cranefly leaves are dark on top and brilliant purple on the undersides. Puttyroot leaves do not have the purple.
Dry creek bed
Then I carefully
ambled my way across the right-hand slope, not stumbling much at all,
though I did have too much pressure on my right leg. Along the way I
took in the scenery and some details.
While looking for Cranefly Orchid leaves, you notice spots of very dark green, but those can be deceiving.
On I went, sometimes scaling up or down the slope a bit. Would the Cranefly leaves be too covered up by fallen tree leaves, or by fallen branches? Would they be gone entirely, a failed colony?
I got far enough along to the area where I had tagged many Japanese Bittersweet vines with pink tape for cutting and treating. I need to get to those soon!
Then I got to the area where I had seen a grove of White Baneberry shrubs a couple of times. It seemed that should be a good indication. But where, from there?
I was about two-thirds of the way up the slope, looking down and around. I started carefully picking my way back down the slope, slowly.
Then … whoops!!
My feet slid out from under me on the fallen leaves. My rear end landed softly on them and the upper part of my body was cradled by the upward slop. It was a slip, not a fall, and the woods took care of me. It all happened in an instant.
My legs were splayed out in front of me, down-slope, in a V shape, with my tennie-clad feet sticking upwards. Nothing hurt at all. In fact … I laughed!
While looking down toward my feet, I gasped. There was a small group of dark things just beyond my feet, framed by my legs.
“There they are!” I shouted out loud. I probably squealed. And I laughed! What a hilarious way to find what I was looking for – as if I was in a movie.
I scooted down a little, closer to them, and brushed away the fallen leaves to see them better.
Then I turned over a leaf, just to be sure. The leaf undersides were a little dirty, but they were definitely deep purple.
Hurray!!!
And I seemed to have also exposed one of the corms – a “current corm”, instead of an older, withered one or a new one that had not taken full shape.
The starchy corm provides food for the single leaf that grows from it. Roots grow from the corm, also.
From my comfortable vantage point on the leaf-covered ground, I made mental notes of the location – much better ones this time. I noted the curve of the creek below and some other landmarks around the area that would likely stay the same for a long time. I had already learned to not rely on the positions of logs and limbs on the ground that can change position from gravity, weather, and decomposition.
The next task I needed to accomplish was to … stand up again. On our steepest slope, on slippery fallen leaves, with leg problems. If I could find a semi-level spot where I could do a Downward Dog …
I scooted over to a very strong sapling and was able to gradually pull myself up. And while I was doing that, I spotted … another Cranefly Orchid leaf!
It was just one lone leaf, standing perfectly, with an obvious petiole, but it showed me that the colony had been starting to spread.
I decided I would leave the woods by going straight up the slope instead of negotiating the slope sideways again (which would have also pained my left leg.) On my way up, I was soon rewarded by the sight of a Rattlesnake Fern's fertile frond glowing in the afternoon sunlight.
Like the Cut-Leaf Grape Fern (Botrychium dissectum), the Rattlesnake (Botrychium virginianum) has a group of serrated leaves near the ground that are sterile. A stalk grows upward and presents the spore-producing upper portion (in its early stage, before opening out, it can look like the rattle end of a rattlesnake.) As the spore-producing section ripens, it turns to golden or tawny shades. Rattlesnake Fern's sterile leaves will disappear, while Grape Fern's will persist all winter.
One last look down-slope presented a sun-dappled, golden scene.
Onward and upward.
I will check the spot again in the summer, in case the Cranefly Orchids bloom.
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My 2020 post about finding the Cranefly Orchid plants includes sources at the end for further information.
Here I am including a couple of additional web sources:
Clemson University Home and Garden Information Center:
hgic.clemson.edu/cranefly-orchid
Good photos of the blossoms, and a photo of a noctuid moth (pollinator)
Arkansas Native Plant Society
anps.org/2015/16/know-your-natives-crane-fly-orchid
This page included close-up photos of the blossoms, dry stalks with dry seed pods, and a photo of the corms in three stages.
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