Not sure, Orchid?
 

Saw these plants in North Carolina mountains and I am not sure if they were Orchids. Please help!

http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/...26d36edc72.jpg


http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/...b0d3389439.jpg

I'd suggest you contact the people behind this site:

North Carolina Native Plants Society - Native Plants Gallery - NC Native Orchids Listings

The flower in the second picture is something in the pea family, genus Lespedeza perhaps.

the first look like showy orchis which do grow there

The first photo is definitely an orchid. The other photo is definitely not.

---Prem

I'm not sure! I don't think they are orchids, but somebody might know what they are. The last picture is a plant from North Carolina.

http://kachers.com/g15.png

http://www.kachers.com/ncorchid.png

The second is Heart-leaved Twayblade, Listera cordata var. cordata, which is an orchid. Don't know what the first is, but it's not an orchid.

The epiphytic plant is a Tillandsia, probably T. paucifolia, that gave up the ghost after going to seed. Normally, these will produce some basal offshoots to keep the plant going even after the last blooming/seeding growth expires...something must have interfered with that process. In the meantime, a fair number of the seeds in their pods sprouted, forming the clump of green at the tip.

What Ron said about the other...definitely a Listera. Florida has one resident species of this genus...L. australis.

--Prem