Not sure, Orchid?

[footTRAX]

Saw these plants in North Carolina mountains and I am not sure if they were Orchids. Please help!

[Jayfar]

I'd suggest you contact the people behind this site:

North Carolina Native Plants Society - Native Plants Gallery - NC Native Orchids Listings

[PaphMadMan]

The flower in the second picture is something in the pea family, genus Lespedeza perhaps.

[johnblagg]

the first look like showy orchis which do grow there

[prem]

The first photo is definitely an orchid. The other photo is definitely not.

---Prem

[footTRAX]

I'm not sure! I don't think they are orchids, but somebody might know what they are. The last picture is a plant from North Carolina.

[ronaldhanko]

The second is Heart-leaved Twayblade, Listera cordata var. cordata, which is an orchid. Don't know what the first is, but it's not an orchid.

[prem]

The epiphytic plant is a Tillandsia, probably T. paucifolia, that gave up the ghost after going to seed. Normally, these will produce some basal offshoots to keep the plant going even after the last blooming/seeding growth expires...something must have interfered with that process. In the meantime, a fair number of the seeds in their pods sprouted, forming the clump of green at the tip.

What Ron said about the other...definitely a Listera. Florida has one resident species of this genus...L. australis.

--Prem