In September, I was thrilled to see thirteen leaves returning from the summer dormancy of cranefly orchids (Tipularia discolor). All but a few were purple leafed, top and bottom, with the typical foliage green with a purple underside. I see a small percentage of fully purple leaves in the wild, so this is a mutation from the typical form, but not highly unusual.

Each orchid has only a single leaf, so thirteen leaves is thirteen plants, and establishing a substantial colony of the native orchids is slow going if the finicky native orchids survive at all. So, I was overjoyed that a handful planted a few years earlier had more than doubled.

Until they were gone, and while plants can perish for a multitude of reasons, a single corm and attached leaf left behind atop the clutter of leaves pointed to squirrels as the culprits in the orchids’ disappearance. The young orchid was replanted, but soon, it also disappeared.

I know, I know, what evidence is there that squirrels are the guilty party? If this was along a trail in a park, the more obvious thieves would be humans, but not here, and while our population of equally mischievous rabbits has diminished (through no fault of mine), there seems little doubt that squirrels dug the edible corms.

At least they didn’t make off with the putty root orchids (Aplectrum hyemale) ten feet away. These are even slower to multiply, but perhaps the roots are not as tasty as the cranefly’s.

There are now nine putty roots, and like cranefly, the leaf of this native orchid disappears after flowering in late spring. A new leaf appears in late summer, standing nearly straight up so that it stands above the clutter of falling leaves. The leaf persists through the winter as it leans flat to the ground to maximize sun exposure.

The flowers of cranefly and putty root are not eye-catching, and in the forest, they’re difficult to spot in the cluttered understory. They’re equally hard to see in the garden, but I cherish these and other native and non-native orchids. If I’m lucky, there could be a few smaller corms still down there, but if not, I might have to go without craneflies.