What is this?

[SlipperFan]

These were growing in a cultivated garden near Traverse City, MI. It looks like an orchid, but is it? What is it???

 

[mrhappyrotter]

Solomon's seal

 

[NYEric]

Epipactis?

 

[abax]

The leaves resemble Soloman's Seal, but SS usually has the blooms down
the stem at leaf joints...or is that false SS? I often forget which one's which.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Looks like there could be variegation, then again could be the lighting. Looks like glossy leaves. Probably a variety of Solomon's Seal. Flowers are in the axils, but its too soon for them yet. False SS is shorter, has fewer leaves, not glossy, and looks more orchid like foliage wise, but the flowers are produced at the end of the growth. Leaves are too shiny, and plant is too big, for E. helleborine.

 

[JeanLux]

Epipactis?

My thinking!!!! Jean

 

[JeanLux]

Epipactis season starting here in Luxbg.:



Jean

 

[tim]

Epipactis helleborine, a non-native (European) and widespread orchid related to the West Coast Epipactis gigantea. Some clones are cleistogamous.

 

[NYEric]

Leaves are too shiny, and plant is too big, for E. helleborine.

In what way is it too big? Stem thickness?

 

[phrag guy]

Epipactis helleborine, a non-native (European) and widespread orchid related to the West Coast Epipactis gigantea. Some clones are cleistogamous.

I have the same in my yard,showed up last year

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Too tall, with way too many sets of leaves. I think its one of the Japanese Solomon's Seals.

 

[NYEric]

It doesn't appear taller than the Epipatis' outside my office in Bklyn.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

But it has more pairs of leaves than I've ever seen on an Epipactis.....also they are glossy.

 

[SlipperFan]

But it has more pairs of leaves than I've ever seen on an Epipactis.....also they are glossy.

Not as glossy as the photo looks -- my camera phone doesn't do well with dappled light, so some of the shine you see is overexposed highlights.

One of the things I can't figure out is, is that a flower bud at the top, or more leaves coming? There were not signs of flowers/buds along the leaf axis.

 

[NYEric]

Epipactis flowers from the top.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Yesterday I passed a house which had some very tall E. helleborine. With this photo in mind, I stopped to look at them very carefully...no doubt, fewer sets of leaves than this plant. Next week I'll be at my LI place, which has wild solomon's seal growing all over, so I'll look at them carefully too.

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks, Eric. Both!

 

[mrhappyrotter]

One of the things I can't figure out is, is that a flower bud at the top, or more leaves coming? There were not signs of flowers/buds along the leaf axis.

There's also a plant called False Solomon's Seal, which unless you look carefully at the foliage, looks more or less identical to Solomon's Seal. The main difference is, besides being completely different species, the False Solomon's Seal produces a terminal flower spike of small whitish flowers, rather than the bell shaped flowers at the leaf axis like Solomon's Seal.

Ultimately, until the mystery plant blooms (which is the most important thing anyway, right?) we may not be able to positively identify it.

 

[SlipperFan]

-- and I'm 4.5 hours away, so I won't see it.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Before flowering, false Solomon's Seal is still a much shorter plant than SS. Also, SS grows vertically, then arches as the stem gets tall. False SS grows at an angle less than 90 deg. I passed that E. helleborine, so I took a picture of it. Notice, there are only about 6 or 7 leaves, which are then replaced by bracts.