Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Monocots: Asparagales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/14/23):
Tipularia discolor
FAMILY
Orchidaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
You may enjoy reading Orchids of the Francis Marion National Forest by Jim Fowler.
Learn more about Cranefly Orchid from the Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
Hughes et al. (2019, 2021) studied the anthocyanins and their distributions in the leaves, describing 4 types: solid green above and solid purple beneath, green with raised purple spots above and solid purple beneath, dark purple above and bright purple below, and brownish purple above and below. See The same anthocyanins served four different ways: Insights into anthocyanin structure-function relationships from the wintergreen orchid, Tipularia discolor.
Tipularia discolor is one of the commonest orchids in e. North America, a familiar and easy to identify species through the fall, winter, and spring by its ovate leaves with acute-acuminate apex, and solid purple (rarely brownish-purple or greenish-purple) leaf undersurface. Read more in Weakley's Flora (2023).
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Tipularia discolor
FAMILY
Orchidaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Tipularia discolor
SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 26 (2002)
Tipularia discolor
SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America (Kartesz, 1999)
Tipularia discolor
SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 049-16-001:
Tipularia discolor FAMILY Orchidaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Tipularia unifolia
COMMON NAME:
Cranefly Orchid
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
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USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_tiun2_001_lvd
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JK Marlow jkm0401e_03
January Greenville County SC
Each plant puts out a single leaf to absorb sunlight all winter, per Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers (Campbell, Hutson, Sharp, & Hutson, 1962).
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Roxanna Martin rlm21212_cmp33
February Spartanburg County SC
Perennial from a swollen underground stem with only a few spongy roots, per Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 1st ed. (Porcher & Rayner, 2001).
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JK Marlow jkm120403_369
April Henderson County NC
Holmes Educational Forest
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JK Marlow jkm180728_3516
July Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
Flower scape has 20-40 flowers in a loosely arranged raceme, per Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005).
)
Richard and Teresa Ware rtw_tipularia_discolor
July
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Gill Newberry gn08_t_discolor_flowers
August
Flowers greenish, lemon-yellow, rust-brown or purplish, on slender pedicels, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).
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JK Marlow jkm0308o_29
August Greenville County SC
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JK Marlow jkm070802_013
August Pickens County SC
Flowers have narrow sepals and petals and are about 1/2-3/4" wide, per Wild Orchids of South Carolina: A Popular Natural History (Fowler, 2005).
)
Keith Bradley kab_t_discolor_10558
August Greenville County SC
Caesars Head State Park
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Keith Bradley kab_t_discolor_2665
August Henderson County NC
Pisgah National Forest
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Don Lewis tdl_1354
August? Greenville County SC
Firefly Forest
Its loose arrangement and subdued flower colors provide camouflage, per Wild Orchids of South Carolina: A Popular Natural History (Fowler, 2005).
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JK Marlow jkm180926_5027
September Greenville County SC
)
Gill Newberry gn11_tipularia_discolor
November
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JK Marlow jkm0312a_10
December Greenville County SC
Fruits are hanging ellipsoid capsules, about 0.5" long, per Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005).
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JK Marlow jkm0312b_25
December Greenville County SC
The single leaf is green above and purplish beneath, per Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999).
)
JK Marlow s031226_a
December Greenville County SC
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/14/23):
Tipularia discolor
FAMILY
Orchidaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Tipularia discolor
FAMILY
Orchidaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Tipularia discolor
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 26
Tipularia discolor
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Floristic Synthesis of North America (Kartesz, 1999)
Tipularia discolor
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 049-16-001:
Tipularia discolor
FAMILY
Orchidaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Tipularia unifolia
1517
Forb
Perennial
Habitat: In a wide variety of mesic to rather dry forests, per Weakley's Flora
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Common (uncommon in GA Coastal Plain)
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
LEAVES:
Simple
Basal: a solitary leaf
FLOWER:
Summer/Fall
Yellowish-brown
Bilaterally symmetrical
3 sepals, two lateral and one dorsal
3 petals, the two lateral similar and a third (the lip) enlarged
stamens and pistil fused together into a column
Inferior ovary
Bisexual
FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Capsule
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Wildflowers (Nelson, 2006) p234
- Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers (Campbell, Hutson, Sharp, & Hutson, 1962) p122
- Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 1st ed. (Porcher & Rayner, 2001) p210
- Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 2nd ed. (McMillan, Porcher, Rayner, & White; 2022) p255
- Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 2nd ed. (McMillan, Porcher, Rayner, & White; 2022) p141
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Newcomb, 1977) p018
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019) p474
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999) p179
- Wild Flowers of NC, 2nd edition (Justice, Bell, & Lindsey, 2005) p056
- Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Georgia (Chafin, 2016) p407
- Wild Orchids of South Carolina: A Popular Natural History (Fowler, 2005) p220
- Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005) p408
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005) p467
- Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont (Spira, 2011) p453
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998) p024
- Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region (Sorrie, 2011) p152
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