While walking the Wells Reserve trails this spring, naturalist Paul Miliotis discovered a tiny but beautiful orchid hiding under a skunk cabbage leaf. A group of us went back to see the orchid, called early coralroot, Corallorhiza trifida, which was almost invisible before we got down on our knees on the boardwalk to take a picture.

The coralroot had short yellowish stalks and tongue-like flowers. No leaves were visible, but C. trifida doesn’t really need them because it is saprophytic — all its nourishment comes through symbiosis with the mycorrhizal fungi that form a vast underground network through healthy forest soils.

Even plants that get energy through photosynthesis, such as oak trees and grapevines, gain resilience through their linkages to mycorrhizae. I was surprised but delighted by this find.

Although C. trifida is a persistent plant (it is found in moist forests throughout the Northern United States and Canada), it is rarely seen.