Yesterday I detoured from my usual path to do my morning walk/jog. Instead of going down the driveway, I went through the horse’s gate to see if there were salamander eggs at the spring seep. There were not. But what I did find were leaves of the Crane-fly Orchid. This kicked off my 2026 Orchid Watch.

I’ve never found this species here before, so it was exciting to see it. I’m thrilled to add it to my list of orchids that live here at Wild Ozark. According to my Big Book (Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas) this species has not been documented in Madison county. I have the print copy, and I’m not sure if they update the PDF regularly or not. The atlas was published in 2013.

Orchid Roll Call

Here’s the list of all orchid species I’ve found so far:

• Crane-fly (Tipularia discolor)
• Three-birds (Triphora trianthophora)
• Showy (Galearis spectabilis)
• Adam and Eve (Aplectrum hyemale)
• Lady’s Tresses (Spiranthes spp.)
• Lily-leaved Tway-Blade (Liparis liliifolia)
• Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens)

Of these, the Three-birds is the smallest and most difficult to find, and I haven’t been back out to look for them again in many years. So I think it’s time to redocument them for my own list this year.

Orchid Watch Kicks Off

March 1

This year it’s starting with the Crane-fly and Adam-n-Eve orchids. For both of these, only the leaves are present now. I thought I might have been able to find some Rattlesnake Plantain, too, but I didn’t see any in their usual locations.

Watch this page for more Orchid Watch posts

The season is just beginning. During my Orchid watch, I’ll take updated photos if I manage to catch them blooming and seeds if I miss that, and unfortunately no further updates if I miss them altogether before there’s a chance to get photos.

My Orchid Watch at Skool.com

I have my Orchid Watch as a course at Skool.com. In there you’ll get more than weekly video updates on what’s going on with the various orchids. If I had cell signal out here, I could do them live, but we don’t, so I take video when I go out to check on them and add them to this course. My schedule averages about every other day, but sometimes there are gaps when life re-arranges my schedule.