Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. odontorhiza (Autumn Coralroot orchid)

After having seen images of this orchid from some of my flickr friends, I decided to travel up to Ashmore Heritage Preserve in upstate Greenville County to see if I could re-locate the site for these orchids in the Preserve. I had last photographed them several years ago, and had not seen them at all when I looked for them in this spot last year.

This is, by far, the homeliest of our native orchids. These images show it in full bloom. It is one of the cleistogamous or self-pollinating orchids found in the eastern half of the United States. It is fairly common, but hard to see, since it is only 4 to 5 inches tall and not very colorful.

The bulges that appear between the flower and the stem are the ovaries which are swollen with seeds. Since it is cleistogamous, it begins to form seeds even before the flowers "bloom"...