Platanthera grandiflora (Large purple fringed orchid)

This is the remainder of my loooooooong day trip to north central Georgia mountains to botanize with my friends, Alan, Steve, and Max. We spent 16 hours either on the road or in the woods in the Chattahoochee National Forest. All in all, we had a very productive day...

The large and the small purple fringed orchid don't usually bloom at the same time. The large purple fringed orchid usually blooms a week to ten days ahead of the small purple fringed orchid. So I felt very lucky to find them in bloom on the same day.

This particular population was growing in a seep at then end of a very long trail. Well, technically, it was not at the end of the trail, but that's where we stopped to photograph it. Alan had been there the last two years around this time of the year, but was either too early or too late to see good flowers. We were close to being early, this year, but we did have a few flowers fully open for us this time...