The Putty Root is a terrestrial orchid – it is also called the Adam & Eve plant. This is because there are a pair of corms in the ground – Adam and Eve. One way to propagate the plant is to cut the corms apart and plant the older one. But the plant produces a corm every year, so this shouldn’t be necessary. After a number of years, you will have a cluster of the plants. The other common name, Putty Root, is derived from the fact that a mucilaginous substance can be obtained from the crushed corm. This sticky substance was used by the Native Americans to repair broken pottery. A solitary leaf (shown below) arises in late summer or autumn and remains over the winter. In the spring, the flower stalk springs up next to the leaf.

Putty Root (aplectrum hyemale)

Since this plant doesn’t have a flower stalk yet, I’ve gone to the Mountain Wildflowers website and borrowed one of their pictures. I’ll have to visit in early May next year to take a photograph of the flower stalk. That is, if I can remember where the plant is!