Tipularia discolor (Pursh) Nutt.

Cranefly Orchid; Crippled Cranefly

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Cranefly Orchid is a perennial member of the Orchid family that is found state wide in Alabama. It is found in a variety of woodlands from dry mixed pine forests to moist hardwood forests. The plant produces a series of small white corms that remain connected to each other. In autumn each corm produces a single leaf that is dark green above and purple beneath. In the spring this leaf dies down and the plant is not noticeable until midsummer when it produces a flowering stem. The stem is one to two feet in height and has up to forty or more yellowish-green or purplish-brown flowers. The individual flowers are distinctly asymmetrical, twisting to the left or right. Like most orchids, the pollen remains in a sticky mass called a pollinia. Noctuid moths visit the flowers and the sticky pollinia attach to their compound eye (left or right depending on the twist of the flower). When the moth visits another flower, the pollinia is pulled from its eye by the sticky stigma. Many small dust-like seed are produced in capsules. Cranefly Orchid is one of the least demanding of our native orchids to grow. It is available from some nurseries specializing in native orchids. You should make sure that plants have been grown from seed or tissue culture and are not wild collected. As with all of our native orchids, you should not pick or dig any that you find in the wild.--A. Diamond

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Native FACU (NWPL)

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