New blog entry - Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor)

[prem]

I have updated the Florida Native Orchid Blog with an entry covering a common, but interesting, native woodland orchid. It is quite widepsread, growing from Michigan all the way down to just north of Ocala, Florida. I remember when I first discovered these growing near a stream that I often hiked to from my home as a teenager...I had lost my footing and slid about five or six feet down an embankment, my arms flailing wildly, trying to grab onto surrounding vegetation to break my slide. When I finally splashed into the stream (did I mention that this was wintertime?), I looked in my hand at a leaf that I happened to grab on the way down. It had that distinctive green topside with a deep purple underside that I had read about in Luer in the previous weeks. Scouting around, it turned out to be pretty common in this area. The next summer, I managed to find a few plants in flower. I visited this area often for the next several decades until moving to Orlando from Tallahassee, Florida.



To see the flowers and find out more about this species:

VISIT THE FLORIDA NATIVE ORCHID BLOG

---Prem

[Cyplover]

cool! they grow like weeds here in east TN

[prem]

Cyp, what sort of bloom-to-plant ratio do you see there? Here in Florida, about 10% of the plants seen in the winter go on to bloom in the summer (Luer notes a similar trend in his book). I wonder if more northerly populations tend to bloom more frequently by comparison.

---Prem

[Cyplover]

most of them here (about 80%) bloom every year

[Tindomul]

Very cool! THanks for sharing.