In the Woods

The Answer To Red Asparagus

Stocks of new growth in the woods that look like red asparagus.It took nearly a week of growth to decipher the secret to this plant that was spotted in the thick fir stand.
By the time the stalks were 8 inches tall and about as thick as a pencil, the flowers started to emerge. Each of the flowers are no bigger than the eraser on a pencil and they break into blossom from the lowest part of flower top only lasting a few days before the next bract of blooms emerge.
Flowering spotted coral. The stem continues to elongate as the tiny flowers emerge giving each bloom plenty of space to open to full beauty without being crowed by a neighbor bloom.
Spotted coral root orchid.Each little bloom is a perfect miniature orchid.
The official name is a Coral Root Spotted Orchid.
According to Go Botany this species is a North American Native plant:

Spotted coral-root is a saprophytic orchid, meaning that it obtains its nutrients from decaying organic matter through a parasitic relationship with a fungal mycelium, rather than from photosynthesis. It gets its common name from spots on the labellum, and from the swollen and branched, coral-like form of the rhizome.