I highly enjoy winter hikes. The underbrush is often bare of leaves, enabling one to have better visibility of the forest floor and the small plants that survive the cold and grow there. One of the plants that I find highly visible in the winter is Tipularia discolor or Cranefly Orchids. Cranefly Orchids were one of the first orchids I learned to identify using just the leaves. The purple underside of the leaves was a hidden surprise that sparked my curiosity and fueled my desire to learn more about the story of this abundant orchid. Unfortunately, my search for ethnobotanical resources on the Cranefly Orchid yielded very little. However, learning about the relationships this orchid shares with its environment was equally as fascinating.