All orchids depend on mushrooms, at least in the early stages of their lives, as they nourish the sprouting seeds. Bird’s nest orchid is almost non-chlorophyllous and is unable to produce its own energy even for breathing, so it needs the mushroom to take care of its nutritional demands throughout its whole life cycle. Its roots are connected to the mushroom’s filament network, which breaks down forest litter and other dead vegetable matter into nutrition. The mushroom delivers sugars and other nutrients, but it is unclear if the mushroom makes use of anything from the orchid – it might be a parasite, or it might provide e.g. amino acids that the mushroom is itself unable to synthesize.

Bird’s nest orchid’s brown or swarthy yellow flowers do not look particularly attractive, but they emit quite a powerful, sweet, musty odour. The fragrance and nectar that is emitted during warm weather invites many kinds of flies in for a meal and to pollinate the flowers (which can also be self-pollinating). After flowering the flower shoot, root and most of the rhizome dies, but the buds at the tip of the root develop into new bird’s nest orchids. Propagation by seed is a lottery – if the seed doesn’t land on suitable soil beside its companion mushroom Rhizoctonia neottiae the plant will not get beyond the germination phase.