Listera smallii (Kidney-leaf Twayblade)

A few years ago, David McAdoo told me where to find this diminutive orchid. He told me to go to Sims Pond (off the Blue Ridge Parkway), and look under the Rhododendron behind the lake.

This rare species prefers to grow in the dark shadows of the Rhododendron that line the creeks and streams of the Appalachian Mountains.

This year, we found more than two dozen plants, but only two were in bloom. These particular plants were no more than two inches tall, but were in perfect shape. I had to resort to using a flash to give me enough light to properly photograph them.

We had set up a meeting with one of my flickr friends, Will Stuart, and I had told him to meet us at Price Lake -- a much larger body of water about a mile west of Sims Pond. We played phone tag for a while until we finally managed to meet up at Sims Pond. I felt bad for telling him the wrong location, but all turned out well...