Aplectrum hyemale (Muhl. ex Willd.) Nutt. 1818
Photos by © Danny Lentz
Common Name The Putty Root [refers to the glue-like substance in the paired tubers]; The Adam & Eve Orchid
Found from Quebec and Ontario to the northeast, Georgia to the south and west to Oklahoma and north to Minnesota in rich, deciduous, open woods with beech and sugar maple as a medium sized, cold growing terrestrial orchid with a single, basal, elliptical, heavily pleated, white ribbed above, purple beneath leaf withering by summer that blooms in the spring on a loose, 8 to 15" [20 to 37.5 cm] long, racemose, 4 to 12 flowered inflorescence. The common name was derived from the early colonist use of the glutinous substance produced by the tubers to glue things together
Synonyms Aplectra elatior Raf. 1824; Aplectrum hyemale f. pallidum (House) House 1924; Aplectrum hyemale var. pallidum (House) Barnhart 1904; Aplectrum shortii Rydb. in N.L.Britton 1901; Aplectrum spicatum Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. 1888; Aplectrum spicatum var. pallidum House 1903; Corallorhiza hyemalis (Muhl. ex Willd.) Nutt. 1818; Corallorrhiza hyemalis (Muhl. ex Willd.) Nutt. 1818; *Cymbidium hyemale Muhl. ex Willd. 1806; Epidendrum hyemale (Muhl. ex Willd.) Poir. 1810;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as A spicatum; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975; The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada Luer 1975 drawing/photos fide; Schlechteriana Vol 4 No 4 1993 photo fide; Wild Orchids Across North America Keenan 1998; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2003; Field Guide to the Orchids of North America Williams 1983; AOS Bulletin Vol 78 No 5 2009 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 79 #6 2010 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #8 2016 photo fide;
