{"id":38136,"date":"2021-07-06T12:18:15","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=38136"},"modified":"2021-07-13T18:58:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T02:58:20","slug":"the-surprising-putty-root-orchid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/06\/the-surprising-putty-root-orchid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising Putty Root Orchid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks so much to my friend Carola, who has generously let me post her photos of Putty Root Orchids<\/a> near her home in Virginia. She’s taken pictures over the seasons, so they illustrate a year in the life of this extraordinary North American species. These orchids boast handsome leaves with alternating green and silvery-white pinstripes. Surprisingly, the new leaves emerge in autumn, remain over winter, and then die back in spring as the plants start to bloom. The first row of photos shows the leaves in late winter, and a young flower spike popping up in May.<\/p>\n

\"Aplectrum<\/a>\"Aplectrum<\/a>\"Aplectrum<\/a><\/p>\n

Aplectrum hyemale<\/em><\/a> has earned the nickname Putty Root Orchid because of the traditional use of its sticky mashed tubers as glue. It’s also called the Adam and Eve Plant because its tubers grow as linked pairs. The species is native to eastern Canada and much of the eastern half of the USA. After blooming in the spring or early summer, their flowers often self-pollinate. Shedding their leaves before summer lets the plants avoid heat stress. By growing fresh leaves in fall, they take advantage of extra winter sunlight coming through the bare tree branches above.<\/p>\n

\"Aplectrum<\/a>\"Aplectrum<\/a>\"Aplectrum<\/a><\/p>\n

The last two rows of pictures show the progression from spring blooms to swelling seedpods in autumn, and then winter’s cold. The final two photos below, with plants coated in ice on a chilly December day, are not what most people expect when they think of orchids.<\/p>\n

\"Aplectrum<\/a>\"Aplectrum<\/a>\"Aplectrum<\/a><\/p>\n

Whenever discussing native plants, it’s important to remember never to take orchids from the wild. It’s illegal, and the plants don’t survive in cultivation. Take only photos, and leave only footprints. Be careful not to step on nearby vegetation if you’re admiring these surprising orchids. Photos courtesy of Carola Haas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks so much to my friend Carola, who has generously let me post her photos of Putty Root Orchids near her home in Virginia. She’s taken pictures over the seasons, so they illustrate a year in the life of this extraordinary North American species. These orchids boast handsome leaves with alternating green and silvery-white pinstripes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool-growers","category-orchids-in-the-wild","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38136"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38329,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136\/revisions\/38329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}