~ The Missing Crane-Fly Orchid ~

Yesterday , I went out to feed the chickens , so I decided I would go ahead and mark those Crane-Fly Orchid leaves I had found. Our chicken coop is near the garden and the leaves were on the other end of the garden near the woods. I found the area were I had raked the dead leaves away to take the photo , but the Crane-Fly Orchid leaves were missing. I looked around for awhile and saw other signs of an animal rooting around. As I was walking back to the house , I realized that I had saw 4 deer in that area Sunday evening when I went to close the chickens up , so I guess they ate them. Hopefully I can find another plant and put a small fence around it , I really want to see this plant in bloom.

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

What is This ?

As I was gathering chickweed Sunday I found this plant , I've often seen it on my walks in the woods , but I haven't been able to identify it until yesterday. I thought it was putty root , but after more searching I found it on the internet , it's a Crane-Fly Orchid (Tipularia discolor). I'm not sure if I've ever seen it bloom , the leaves die before it blooms , making it hard to know what kind of bloom it may be. I plan to put some rocks around these leaves , so I'll know were it was growing , this plant is growing at the edge of the woods , near the garden. The leaves appear in the Fall and stay green through Winter , the leaves start start dying as the weather gets warmer. After the leaves die , it blooms in late summer.I hope to see the bloom this year , I'm an orchid lover , so this discovery was very exciting. I don't think this plant has any medicinal properties , I didn't find any information about herbal use. I did find a great article about the Crane-Fly Orchid , it has some beautiful pics of plant in bloom. You can read about it in the next post.

~~ Greenest Blessings ~~

JoyceAnn