Identification
This native orchid has upright yellow-green to purplish stems from 2 to 8 inches tall. Leaves are reduced to inconspicuous scale-like bracts tightly clasping the stem (B). From 2-20 flowers occur in a raceme on the upper stem, the inconspicuous flowers and larger more obvious capsules dangling from the ends of short stalks (A,E,F). The tiny flowers less than 1/4 inch long often do not open (cleistogamous) and are believed to be self-pollinated. Those which do open (chasmagomous) consist of a brownish to purplish upper hood-like structure and a broad, white lower lip with wrinkled, purplish edges and purple spots (C,D). The upper hood-like portion consists of the closely approximated, but unfused sepals and 2 lateral petals. The lower lip represents the modified central petal. The ovary at the base of the flower develops into a dangling yellowish-green, oval, strongly ribbed capsule (D).
Rare and irregular in upland woods at both Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods, particularly in areas undergoing early transition to woodlands. Flowering occurs from August to October. Plants are known to skip a year or more between flowering and do not appear above ground in those years.
Coral-root Orchids produce essentially no chlorophyll and cannot exist in the absence of certain fungi which provide them with processed organic nutrients from the soil or nearby trees. Extensively branched fungal hyphae are interconnected with the underground rhizomes of the orchid as well as nearby tree roots in what is often referred to as a “mycorrhizal network”. The network allows fungi, which have developed a symbiotic relationship with the tree roots, to transfer nutrients from the tree to the parasitic orchids.
Coral-root Orchid’s branched underground rhizomes which resemble coral are the origin of the common name. The genus name odontorhiza is derived from the Greek, meaning “tooth-root” a reference to the swollen, bulb-like base of the stem.
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