Today, Alan Cressler (from Atlanta, Georgia) and I went looking for some open flowers of Aplectrum hyemale also known as Putty-root orchid. Often, the flowers will not open fully, and they will hang downward on the stem.

I had previously seen several populations of them along Hwy. 276 in upper Greenville County, South Carolina. After making a visit to these populations about a week ago, I thought that maybe the flowers would be past perfect bloom on this visit, and some of them were. However, we did find a number of plants that apparently got a late start, because these plants were in perfect shape...