Strange purple asparaguses grow out of the soil. You find them in a dry oakwood with sparse trees, on dry calcareous soil, or even in a truffle orchard. What is it? A wild orchid, the Violet Limodore (Limodorum abortivum).
From its underground rhizome new sprouts emerge. In a few weeks they will make large circles of deepn purple stalks carrying big purple flowers.
The flowers only open in really good weather. On dark and rainy days they do not open at all. Often the plant is cleistogamous, it pollinizes itself with its own pollen before the opening of the flowers. Sometimes the Violet Limodore makes flowers that don't even get above ground and never see daylight.