Deciduous woods, often under oaks in moist sandy soil, but sometimes with beech and maple.

A very distinctive orchid, the winter-green leaf (as in Aplectrum) withering in spring, before the somewhat asymmetrical greenish or yellowish (marked with purplish) flowers mature in the summer, the rhizome with a series of tubers. The persistent old fruiting stalk may be found with a well-developed leaf at the base.