The purple twayblade is a plant that asks you to slow down. Native to the eastern forests of Canada and the northern United States, it emerges each spring from a bulbous corm as nothing more than a pair of broad, glossy basal leaves, then sends up a slender reddish stalk bearing up to thirty small brownish-purple flowers. The threadlike lateral petals and veined lip are intricate at close range, easily missed in passing. In North Carolina it is most reliably found in mountain forests and moist floodplains.

This is not a garden plant in the conventional sense. Its seeds can only germinate in the presence of a specific soil fungus, making cultivation essentially impossible outside its native habitat. The twayblade is listed as a vulnerable species in North Carolina, which means the most useful thing a gardener can do is protect the conditions it needs: intact forest understory, moist well-drained soil with a slightly acid pH, and the absence of aggressive disturbance. It spreads slowly through wind-carried seed, and each new corm develops quietly beside the old one.