Just curious

[AnonYMouse]

My friend showed me a "volunteer" orchid in the yard. This was the first year spotted (hard to miss where it came up). It looks like a dendrobium, grows canes like a den with leaves along the cane segments, flowers at the top of the canes like a den (I didn't see the flowers in situ). The leaves have lateral stripes. Pics of flowers were of an orchid or a very very good imitation but didn't look like any of the common dens.

Not really important but was curious if there were deciduous terrestrial dens.

Sorry, I don't have pics

Edit: I don't know why I said deciduous

[Leafmite]

Neat! Could it be a 'bamboo orchid'?

[WhiteRabbit]

I don't believe there are any terrestrial Dens. Could be an Epidendrum. Could be something else entirely - hard to say without a photo. Are you in Florida? (Just asking as that may be helpful for others to have ideas what it may be -if an orchid)

[Rowangreen]

Here's a picture of a 'volunteer orchid' or 'Ragged Fringed Orchid'.

gardening: Volunteer orchid

Apparently it's also known as Platanthera lacera or Habenaria lacera and grows through most of the Eastern States.

Is that it?

[WhiteRabbit]

Good detective work, Rowangreen! My search for "volunteer orchid" didn't find that.

[Rowangreen]

My first search just got hundreds of results for volunteers for orchid projects! So I changed to an image search which worked!

[AnonYMouse]

LoL

"Volunteer" is a term used for plants that germinate\grow without human intervention.

I'm in California.

When I was first shown the picture of the flower, it didn't strike me as any obvious genera but it looked like it had columns with anthers. When I saw the plant, my first thought was dendrobium. The canes were about 12-18" high, 1/2-3/4" wide. The cane segments were about 3" long, 5-6 segments. The leaves grew out of the joints (don't know what they are called) perpendicular to the canes. The inflorescence grew from the top of the canes.

My friend can be very meticulous (pedantic even) if she is interested in something so I maybe able to get notes as it cycles through the seasons.

[AnonYMouse]

I wish I took a closer look. There were a lot of leaves on ground from the tree this grew under and there might have been bark ground cover under the dead leaves

[Rowangreen]

I think without photos, if it's not the one I posted, then I doubt you are going to get an answer. If your friend has pictures why don't you post them?

[AnonYMouse]

Its easier for me not to know what it is than to get my friend to download the image from the camera to a computer then upload it to email or a hosting site. My life would be easier.