Hosted Florida Native Orchid and Wildflower Walk - June 7, 2014

We had a great time on June 7 at Fort Christmas Historical Park and nearby Orlando Wetlands Park.  We saw many species of wildflowers and other plants on our leisurely walk through both these parks.  Five species of orchids were found, including three in flower, and one in fruit.

Here are the orchids we saw in flower:

The Florida Butterfly Orchid (Encyclia tampensis)

The Grass Pink Orchid (Calopogon tuberosus)

Scarlet Ladies Tresses (Sacoila lanceolata).

Two other orchid species that we saw out of flower were the Greenfly Orchid (Epidendrum magnoliae) and the Jingle Bell/Needleroot Orchid (Dendrophylax porrectus).

I hope others can join us next year, as I hope to make this an annual event.

Sharing My Photography Techniques in a New Course

Over the years, many have asked how I take my photographs, from equipment I use to techniques I use for taking the photos and processing them.  I have recently partnered with the website Orchids Made Easy at www.orchidsmadeeasy.com to create an on-line photography master course sharing many of my techniques and tips.  While no one class can be a substitute for hard work and practice, the methods I share can help you hone your skills in the right direction.

In this course, I cover techniques for photographing cultivated orchids in the studio and wild orchids in situ, from lighting to composing the shot to editing the digital photos in a digital editing application (I cover both Photoshop and GIMP).  There are many instructional videos used throughout the course, along with detailed, illustrated examples.  Here is the course outline:

Introduction
   1: About the Author
   2: Purpose
Lesson 1: Equipment Overview
   1: Introduction
   2: Camera
   3: Lens
   4: Tripod or Camera Stabilization
Lesson 2: Sources of Light
   1: Natural Light
   2: Flash
   3: Constant Light Source
Lesson 3: Photography 101 - Lighting
   1: Three-point Lighting
   2: Key Light
   3: Fill Light
   4: Back Light
   5: Soft vs. Hard Light
Lesson 4: ISO & Exposure
   1: Adjusting Parameters
Lesson 5: Aperture
   1: Aperture Overview: From A-Z
Lesson 6:Composing the Shot
   1: Subject
   2: Backdrop
Lesson 7: Taking the Photos
   1: Getting Started
   2: Bracketing the Exposure
   3: Varying the Lighting Angle
   4: Varying the Camera Position
   5: Focus on the Flowers
   6: Putting it All Together
Lesson 8: Making Your Photos Sing
   1: Why It Matters
   2: Take Your Best Shot
   3: Editing Software Tools
   4: Adjusting Sharpness & Brightness
   5: Adjusting Color
   6: Removing Blemishes
   7: How To Video Lessons
   8: Before & After Comparisons
Lesson 9: Publishing and Printing Photos
   1: Sharing
   2: Printing
Addendum: Shooting Plants in Situ
   1: Finding Wild Orchids
   2: Best Environmental Conditions
   3: Composition
   4: Video Lesson
Conclusion
   1: Parting Thoughts

Through this partnership, Orchids Made Easy is offering my Photography Master Course for $47 US with a money back guarantee if you're not satisfied.  You can sign up for this course at the following link:

Photography Course Sign-up Link

Proceeds from this course go to help fund the Florida Native Orchids website, field trips, photography equipment and the like.  As always, thank you for your support.

A Newly Discovered Population of Calopogon multiflorus

Breaking news! 05/07/14

A New County Was Added to the List of Known Florida Counties for the Rare Florida Native Orchid, Calopogon multiflorus.



Prem Subrahmanyam, curator of the Florida Native Orchid website, Facebook page, and blog, was exploring an area of the Apalachicola National Forest on Sunday, May 4, 2014 near Tallahassee, Florida (Leon County). In a recently prescribed burned area, he found a small population (8 individual plants) of the rare orchid species, Calopogon multiflorus, commonly known as the Many-flowered Grass Pink. This species was recently upgraded from endangered to threatened with the latest guidance released by the Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Appropriate officials have been contacted to let them know about this newly discovered population.  The previously closest known population to this location was 30 miles away in Liberty County, Florida.

The gallery page for this species on the Florida Native Orchid page has been updated with a new photograph taken of a member of this population, along with an updated map. Those can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/calopogon_multiflorus.htm

This brings to four the number of species that Prem Subrahmanyam has been the first to discover growing in Leon County, Florida. Previous first discoveries were Platanthera flava, Platanthera ciliaris, and Zeuxine strateumatica.

A Fitting 100th Blog Post - Platanthera ciliaris in bloom.

I had the privilege of revisiting a site where one of Florida's most beautiful orchids grows - The Yellow Fringed/Orange Fringed Orchid (Platanthera ciliaris).  These are some of the nicest photos I've gotten of one of these on a partly cloudy morning in Central Florida.

You can read more about this species by following this link:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/platanthera_ciliaris.htm

The newest photos are at the bottom of the page, but I will post them here as well.  Click on the images to zoom in on them.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

---Prem 

 

A Rarely Seen Florida Beauty - the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain

Years ago, when Carl Luer published his masterwork, The Native Orchids of Florida, the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) had been hinted at as growing in Florida, but had not been officially recorded.  It was listed in a section in his book of orchids that might one day be found growing wild in Florida.

Fast forward to 1983 where a pair of naturalists discovered a population on one of the many hills near the Apalachicola River.  As is seen elsewhere in north Florida, riverine systems are a means of many northern species making tentative forays into north Florida.  The climate is often just a bit cooler, giving plants a place to establish tenuous outlying colonies.

I have not yet had the privilege of seeing the Florida population, but I had encountered a population of these orchids while photographing Pink Ladyslippers near the Atlanta, Georgia area.  I hope one day to see the Floridian plants, if the colony still exists.  A lot can happen in 30 years.

The plants consist of a basal rosette of beautifully patterned leaves -- deep blue-green with silvery veins.  The hairy flower stem emerges in spring to bloom in mid-late summer with small, roundish flowers with green-striped sepals and deeply pouched lips.

Here are some photos of this species:

And here is the profile page on the Florida Native Orchids site:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/goodyera_pubescens.htm 

Snowfall in the Deep South, in Summertime!!

In general, the Snowy Orchid (Platanthera nivea) is a rarely seen summer-blooming orchid, earning a spot on the threatened plant list in Florida.  It is one of the few terrestrial bog/wetland orchids that bridges the gap between the spring bloomers and the late summer/fall bloomers.

Occasionally, however, it can become locally abundant, and when it does so, it can create spectacular displays in wet meadows and on wet roadsides.  I have seen two areas, one in the Florida panhandle and one in southeastern Georgia where this occurs, and the display is breathtaking!

Here is an individual flower head:

And here is a video taken in the same general area as the first picture in this post:

The flowers are nicely fragrant of citrus blossoms and hold small amounts of nectar in the tips of their spurs to reward their pollinators (likely small butterflies).

 

Feature on OrchidsMadeEasy.com

I was recently interviewed for a guest feature on the Orchids Made Easy blog.  You can read the article here:

http://www.orchidsmadeeasy.com/florida-native-orchids/

Thank you to Ryan and Jenny for the honor of inclusion on your blog!

 

33rd Annual Florida Native Plant Society Conference

I will be speaking at the 33rd annual Florida Native Plant Society Conference on Friday afternoon and exhibiting (i.e. selling stuff - photos, t-shirts, greeting cards, etc.) on Friday and Saturday.  Please stop by and say "hi"!

http://www.fnps.org/conference

Pink Ladyslipper or Scratch Another Thing Off the Bucket List

This entry's orchid is one not native to Florida, but native to the greater United States.

Growing up in Florida, I have appreciated how we are home to a wealth of orchid species found nowhere else in the country.  That does not mean, however, that other states in the Union don't have equally as lovely (and sometimes even lovelier) orchids that grow only outside our state boundaries.  One such orchid is one that I have wanted to see in person for decades as I have salivated over photographs of it in flower...Cypripedium acaule or the Pink Ladyslipper, also known as the Moccasin Flower.

This species is still relatively common throughout a large swathe of the eastern US and Canada, being found typically in pine forests where the pine needle litter tends to keep the soil quite acidic.  Without this acid soil, this plant will quite often succumb within a few years, while plants in the their native environs will last for decades.  These orchids, therefore, do not make good garden plants and are best left to be enjoyed in the wild.

With the help of some on-line orchid colleagues, I was able finally to observe this species in situ in a park to the southwest of Atlanta, Georgia. They were everything I hoped they would be and more.  The flowers themselves ranged in size from having pouches about 1.5 inches long to close to 3 inches long.  I am guessing the larger flowers belonged to older, more robust plants, while the smaller flowers must have belonged to plants just a few years old. One surprising characteristic was their sweet scent, reminding me of the scent of citrus blossoms.

In this, however, these flowers can be deceiving.  They offer no nectar or pollen as a reward to their pollinators.  Instead, pollinating insects end up entering the pouch-shaped lip through what is essentially a one-way valve.  The only escape is to climb a ladder of upward-pointing hairs going up the backside of the flower.  This path leads out underneath the waiting pollen masses and/or stigmatic surface of the column. The hapless insects who escape this trap end up dispersing pollen to other nearby flowers.  Not all insects do escape, leading to small collections of dead insect corpses in the bottom of the pouch of some flowers.

It was certainly the thrill of a lifetime to stand on that remote hillside beneath the pines and observe hundreds of plants in various stages of bud.  Only a few flowers were open, but that was enough for me to take some really pleasing photographs, if I do say so myself

In any case, here are some of the photos from that day (click each image to see a larger display):

 

 

 

Rosebud Orchid (Cleistes/Cleistesiopsis bifaria) watercolor

The Rosebud Orchid, Cleistesiopsis (Cleistes) bifaria, is perhaps my favorite Florida terrestrial orchid (the Ghost Orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii, is my favorite epiphyte).  

I remember back when I was 13-14, living on the outskirts of Tallahassee in a semi-rural area with a state forest on one side and the Apalachicola National Forest on the other.  The previous year, an arson-derived wildfire took out a number of acres of mature pine forest, leaving a long swathe of moist prairie in its wake.  The forest service planted a number of seedling pines (which are now a near-mature forest again) in the area, but they were many years from maturing at this point.  Because of this new open area, we were able to hike in easily and observe the local flora - blue-eyed grasses, yellow star lilies, sundews, butterworts (big yellow and little blue), hat-pins, and bachelor's-buttons all grew in abundance in the area.  

One day, I came home from school to my mom inviting us to go out on a hike with her to see something "interesting" she saw earlier that day while hiking in the forest.  She suggested grabbing a pair of binoculars as we headed out of the door.  We followed the western edge of the prairie to a patch of forest close by that was mercifully spared from the fire.  

As we approached the area, I saw a few of the familiar white spirals of Grass-Leaved Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes praecox) that we had also seen previously further out in the prairie.  As we hiked further along the remains of an old firebrake, we saw nearby some familiar fetterbushes with several leaves that had become swollen, thick and bright pink - our best guess is some sort of gall disease.  Further back toward the edge of some deeper woods, I thought I spied some more of these pinkened leaves.  "What do you see back there?" my mom asked me.  "Some more of those pink leaf galls", I replied.  

"Take your binoculars and look again."  I obeyed, expecting to see more of the same pink galls.  Instead, what I saw through the binoculars were two pink petals and a veined lip with contrasting brown-green sepals arching behind them and curving gracefully backward.  "Rosebud Orchids!" I exclaimed as I scampered toward them to observe them more closely.  All the literature I had read on them up to that point indicated that they were exceedingly rare, so I was not expecting to see these in the wild without a lot of searching, and certainly not within walking distance of my home!  I was elated.

I took to studying this species relentlessly, reading any information I could find about them in our wildflower books and later in Carl Luer's The Native Orchids of Florida (a 14-year birthday present).  It turns out that in the ANF and other portions of the Florida panhandle, this is a reasonably common orchid, but it does become rarer as you head into states north of Florida.  Ironically enough, the closely related Rose Pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides), which is listed as more common in the literature, seem to be much harder to find than the Rosebud in the ANF.

The plants are very stately, bearing a single vanilla-scented flower almost two inches in diameter on a tall solitary stem.  One leaf grows midway up the stem and another bract grows beneath the flower.  The entire plant is coated with a fine, plum-like frosting that makes it relatively easy to see plants out of bloom.  Only the tall meadow-beauties in the same area have a similarly frosted leaf, but the plants are so different, they can be easily distinguished.  The flower itself consists of a set of brown-to-green sepals that arch upward from the flower.  Sometimes the sepals are straight, other times they are curled at the end.  Occasionally, one finds sepals that curl completely on themselves like an emerging brown fern fiddlehead. The tube-like corolla (the petals and lip) is tilted slightly downward, surrounding a bright green column (gynostemium).  The two petals are similar and range in color from white to a light rose-pink, ending with a slight curl at their tips.  The lip is more darkly colored, bearing a plateau-like crest edged in rose and spotted on its upper surface and a slightly ragged edge.  Rose, green, and brown colored veins snake throughout the lip, giving it a most exotic and handsome appearance.

What I found most intriguing about this species is that such beauty could be found in a native American plant.  One would expect exotic orchids from the tropics of Brazil or Peru or Madagascar to bear such beauty, but an orchid growing just a few thousand feet from my home?  I took to sketching and doodling this orchid over and over in the margins of my homework notebooks, sketching it idly whenever I had a chance.  The shape became quite familiar to my mind's eye and I could easily draw an entire plant from memory.

Many years later, I can still easily sketch one of these without any visual aid.

If you want to read more about this species, follow the link below:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/cleistes_bifaria.htm

Quite recently, I have taken to experimenting with watercolor pencils, which are a most intriguing medium to work with.  You essentially color-pencil in your artwork on your paper and then use a wet paintbrush to turn it into a watercolor painting.  This gives me very fine control of the placement of the color, although the limited color palette of my basic set makes picking a proper blend of the colors challenging at times (I will try to upgrade to a more "professional" set some time soon). My first experiment in the medium was my Ghost Orchid painting, seen in an earlier blog entry and recently "digitally remastered" in Photoshop to smooth out the background to what you see below:

I figured it was high time to render my favorite terrestrial orchid in full watercolor treatment as well.  My main problem with the ghost orchid painting that I had done previously was the fact that I didn't try to use anything to mask the foreground while painting the background.  Hence, I had to try to fill in the background into some exceedingly small areas.  I also tried to use the watercolor pencils to color in the background and then wash over them.  This was very hard to smooth out to what I wanted for a background.  Hence, the digital makeover to fix this painting a bit.

This time, I used rubber cement for a masking compound, painting over the sketch I made of the Rosebud Orchid, based on this photo:

The rubber cement worked like a charm for masking, allowing me to wash over the paper with impunity to create a much smoother background, but being transparent, it was hard to judge how it was working right at the edges. Hence, once the paper was dried and the mask removed, I had to try to touch up the somewhat ragged edges, which made it a little more difficult to keep the color entirely even.  It is my understanding that "professional" (read: expensive) masking compounds add a bit of color, making it easier to see where you are going with it.  I may try one of these the next time around.

Once the mask was removed and the edges touched up as well as possible, I began the task of painting the flower. I was most concerned about properly conveying the sense that the light was penetrating the upward-arching sepals and washing into the shadow at the base of the petals and getting the intricate coloring of the lip as correct as possible.  After a lot of painstaking application of layers of color - olive, clay yellow, brown, deep yellow, cherry red, carmine, lavender and forest green; I am pretty happy with the results.

So, without further ado, I give to you my Rosebud Orchid rendering in watercolor and watercolor pencil:

And here is a closer shot of the flower to see the detail:

I hope you enjoy this at least a fraction as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Copper Ladies Tresses Profile Up on the Website

I covered Copper Ladies' Tresses (Mesadenus lucayanus) in a previous post.  As is often the case, I use this blog as a way to get some information and photographs out prior to setting up a formal profile on the Florida Native Orchids website.  In this case, quite a bit of time has elapsed between the initial blog entry and the plant profile, as I put my focus on setting up other profiles and generally updating the website to fully utilize MySQL and PHP for the orchid gallery.

So, after a very long delay, here finally is the profile for Copper Ladies Tresses on the Florida Native Orchids site (click the thumbnail below to visit the profile):

Happy Everglades Day!

On March 7, 2012, the Florida Legislature voted to designate April 7, the birthday of Everglades activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas as Everglades Day. Today is the first official Everglades Day.  Being the home to the largest collection of orchid species in the United States, the Everglades is a unique environment deserving protection.

By the way, the pictured flower is Vanilla phaeantha, an orchid that grows in the Big Cypress portion of the Everglades. Here is a link that describes this orchid more:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/vanilla_phaeantha.htm

 

Late Autumn's Last Hurrah - Spiranthes longilabris

Late in autumn (late October for north Florida and late November for central/south), one of our prettier white ladies' tresses species, Spiranthes longilabris, comes into bloom in open, wet areas.  Not very often seen, I often went hunting for this in my early adulthood in Tallahassee, to no avail.  Granted, I used Carl Luer's book as a guide, where he stated that they would go on Thanksgiving weekend to see them in the Sarasota area.  Two years ago, I was clued into a particular population, but I was a hair's breadth too late (we did find plants in seed...perhaps a week or two out of bloom).  

Most recently, a colleague pointed me to an unknown Spiranthes that he had photographed in a wild area in Palm Beach County.  Its long, lacy lip and widespread sepals were an unmistakeable dead-ringer for this species, not recorded in Palm Beach County before.  On my way down to an orchid talk in Homestead, I was able to visit the same area and to find them in full flower!  Notch another orchid species in my belt!

Here are a few photographs that we took this day:

 

Spiranthes longilabris - full spike.

Spiranthes longilabris - flower close-up.

And here is the profile page on the Florida Native Orchids website:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/spiranthes_longilabris.htm 

Prosthechea cochleata - An Increasingly Rare Orchid

Prosthechea cochleata, known as the Clamshell Orchid and the Black Orchid in Belize (it is their national flower) is relatively common in the tropical areas to the south of Florida, and it makes a tenuous foray into the southern swamps as well.  In times past, this would have been counted as one of the more abundant epiphytes in Florida, but habitat loss and collecting have made this increasingly hard to find.  Entire areas that once supported large colonies of this species have been stripped bare in recent years.  This is truly senseless, as this is not a hard species to find in cultivation, available commercially from many on-line orchid vendors and shipped right to your door.

This particular plant is a rather robust one, found deep in the Fakahatchee Strand.  It was in full flower in late November.  Interestingly enough, this particular plant was also photographed by the legendary Clyde Butcher and appears on his website.

Flowering spikes typically emerge in fall and bloom throughout the winter, providing no freakish weather occurs, bringing frost to the swamps.

Please don't take orchid plants from the wild, instead, leave them for others to enjoy.

Here is the profile page on the Florida Native Orchid website (click to follow it):

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/prosthechea_cochleata.htm 

And here is one of the photographs we took that day:

Florida Clamshell Orchid (Prosthechea cochleata)

The Rarest of Beauties from the Ashes - Calopogon multiflorus

Florida is home to four species of grass pinks, Calopogon tuberosus, Calo. pallidus, Calo. barbatus, and finally the endangered Calopogon multiflorus.  The former group of three species is still rather common in Florida, finding homes equally as suitable in wet, open pinelands and prairies and wet roadsides and ditches.  In the last environments, substantial colonies of plants may arise, all within easy access of a car parked (safely) on the roadside.

Calo. multiflorus, on the other hand, is very exacting in its choice of habitat, preferring to flower only after a fire has removed the competing vegetation in a suitable open pineland or semi-wet prairie.  Even when the vegetation is low and still relatively open, C. multiflorus will seem to remain dormant, or, at least, non-blooming, whereas other species of Calopogon will seem to do fine, as long as an adequate supply of moisture and accessible sunshine is received. 

As we European settlers have move to Florida, we have brought our natural fear of fire, and for a number of decades, we have sought to suppress natural fires at all costs, especially during the first three-quarters of the 20th century.  Thankfully, attitudes have changed, and the use of prescribed burning and/or letting natural wildfires progress has restored a more healthy fire regime to many wild lands.  In developed areas, however, where small pockets of wild land are sandwiched between houses and commercial developments, "brush fires" are usually suppressed with extreme prejudice.

The result is that fire-dependent species of orchids such as Calo. multiflorus and Pteroglossaspis ecristata are becoming quite scarce throughout their historical range.  It may also be the case with C. multiflorus that it is not often recorded even when it does emerge after a suitable fire.  

I had been on a hunt for this species for many years.  One year, on a report that a small colony of this species was in flower at a nearby wilderness area, I had to wait a week before I could find a free morning to go photograph the plants.  By the time I had arrived, they were bloomed out, and impossible to find as just small stems with seed pods hidden amongst the scorched twigs.

Finally, just this year, on the tip of a fellow nature photographer, I was able to drive to an area where these were still flowering.  What lovely little creatures they were, with bright magenta flowers that seem on average to be a bit smaller than Calo. barbatus, arranged along a short raceme.  They also seem to be rounder and fuller in flower presentation than C. barbatus, owing to the fact that their petals become wider near their tips.

The day was cool (mid-50s in the morning) and pleasant.  It was a bit windy, which made it challenging to get a good shot with no motion blur.  I was unable to set the aperture to an optimal value, so the flower closeup below is actually a bit of a stack/composite to show all parts of the flower well.

Here are some of the photographs we took that day.

Several plants in situ.

Flower close up.

You can read more about this species and see more photographs from that day on my website:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/calopogon_multiflorus.htm

Habenaria quinqueseta (v. macroceratitis) done for FLOR500 project.

Awhile ago, I was made aware of a project called FLOR500, which invited 500 local Florida artists to participate in creating artwork representing 500 species of wildflowers native to Florida.  This is to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's landing on the Florida coast and giving the state its name.

I chose Habenaria quinqueseta (v. macroceratitis), known from the Central Florida region, for my art piece, done in chalk pastel on black recycled art paper.  Click the image to see a larger version.

You can find out more about FLOR500 here:

http://www.xaviercortada.com/?page=FLOR500_about 

And you can find my individual artist and artwork page here:

http://www.xaviercortada.com/?page=FLOR295 

Venice Area Orchid Show, Venice, FL

We were at the Venice Area Orchid Show on the weekend of Feb 3 and 4th.  Below is a picture of my daughter Emily with our sales table. 

In addition to selling matted photograph prints, frame prints, canvases, t-shirts, greeting cards, and the like, I entered a photo of Miguel Urquia's Ghost orchid in the arts and crafts exhibit at the show, where it took a first place ribbon. Miguel (God rest his soul) would have been proud to see this.

The next show we will be doing is the Florida Native Plant society 2013 conference in the Jacksonville, Florida area.  I will be exhibiting and selling as well as speaking on Friday, May 17th.

Ghost Orchid Earrings

Last Valentine's Day, I bought a pair of ghost orchid earrings from LeaFloria Jewelry on Etsy (click to visit her site).  I am in no way associated with her...I just think her jewelry is awesome.  I think they very nicely reproduce the general anatomy of the ghost orchid in a nicely stylized fashion.  They are sterling silver with a small pearl hanging from their entwined labellar lobes.  Here is my lovely wife and the love of my life, Joy, modeling these earrings:

Enjoy.

Spooky Orchids for Halloween

Here are a few spooky-looking or spooky-named fall-blooming orchids from the state of Florida:

Habenaria odontopetala, or the toothpetal false rein orchid, is in flower now. The small, 1/2-inch-wide flowers look like small goblins. The spiderwebs add to the spooky effect. Did I mention that these flowers are only fragrant at night? Haunting Florida swamps and forests with their ghostly fragrance.

Another fall-blooming orchid, the Wild Coco (Eulophia alta) blooms in September in central Florida, spreading into December in south Florida. The flowers have somewhat of a resemblance to erect-eared, fanged dog heads. With multiple "heads" per spike (which can reach up to five feet tall), these are a worthy botanical analogue of Cerberus, the multi-headed dog guarding the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology.

Usually, this orchid blooms in summertime, although occasional fall-blooming plants are found. Still, with the common name of Ghost Orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii is a perfect Halloween orchid. It is also keenly night fragrant, pollinated by the Giant Sphinx Moth that also inhabits Florida's haunted southern swamps.

Click the "View the Gallery" graphic at the top of this blog page to see many more photos of Florida's amazing orchids.
  

Hats off to the state of Florida and volunteers!

A road widening project underway in Volusia county threatened a number of native species, including the threatened Scarlet Ladies' Tresses (Sacoila lanceolata).  The state DOT, along with volunteers, ensured that plants and animals threatened by the expansion would stand a chance of survival.

Read the article.

Find out more about the Scarlet Ladies Tresses by clicking the thumbnail below:

At Long Last, Platanthera integra

Armed with the fact that yellow fringeless orchids (Platanthera integra) were finally in bloom in the Florida panhandle in the general vicinity of Tallahassee, I made my way north again with the hope of recapturing these in flower with improved photographic equipment, as my previous photos were taken years ago with a 4 megapixel Sony Mavica.

My original goal was to be at a specifically known site early in the morning to use that highly sought after "magical morning light" for my photographs.  Well, when I was setting my phone alarm, something happened and I forgot to save the new time.  So, at 9:30, I awoke to find that most of the magical morning light is well gone before even heading out, not to mention the hour-long drive (and at least a 30 minute hike) before I would be face-to-face with blooming plants.  Sometimes things don't start out by going your way.  I frantically heat up some breakfast and head out the door.

I finally arrived at the site around 10:30 and began my hike into the wet savannah--made even wetter by recent soaking rains from Hurricane Isaac.  After just a few minutes of slogging through ankle-high water, my pants were soaked to my knees.  Pressing on, I rounded the bend of dwarfed cypress trees and very tall pitcher plants (Sarracenia flava) into the area where I was told that they had been seen a few years ago.

Nothing.  Not a single plant to be seen.  

After a quickly worded prayer and some hard thinking, I remembered something being said about these plants being seen on the backside of this particular savannah.  So, as I began my disappointed hike back out of the area, I made my way over near the far eastern edge near the treeline of widely scattered pines.  As I approached, I caught a flash of saffron yellow bobbing above the grasses in a gentle breeze.  A little closer, and I was sure of it...I was finally gazing upon one of these old friends that I had known since boyhood.

A search of the surrounding area yielded eight other plants in flower.  One non-blooming plant (just a large leaf) grew near the first plant I spotted.  It was 11:15 AM at this point, and the light was more approaching high noon and perilously sunny.  While overhead, high-contrast light is considered the bane of most flower photographers, I make the best of it.  In this case, I actually think it helped to accentuate the crystalline texture of the miniature flowers (each only 1 cm wide).

Scanning the sky, I saw clouds near the horizon, as they made their way slowly in my direction.  So, I waited, and waited some more, as I knew their diffuse light would make for some nicer photographs.  As I waited, the breeze began to pick up, so I hastily construct a stabilizing scaffolding for the stem using some branches within reach. A few candidate clouds moved just a little too far to one side to block the sun, so I had to wait even longer for the right cloud to come near.  I managed to fire off one or two shots when a small cloud did block the sun for just a few seconds.

Suddenly, a red flash on my camera display indicated my battery had run out.  To make matters worse, I forgot to charge my backup battery, so it is down to almost zero charge on that backup as well.  The final photographs would have to be done looking through the lens manually, rather than relying on the sensor view. 

I waited longer.  Finally, the right cloud blocked the sun properly, giving me some nicely diffused light to work with.  I fired off multiple shots, continuing to do so even as the cloud began to pass by and the light brightened again.  Just on the cusp of that border between cloud-lit and sunlit, I found what I felt to be the best photo of the bunch.

Here it is...I give to you this weekend's best photo of Platanthera integra. 

Hiking out, I found two more plants closer to the road.  Then, as I began my drive back, I spotted two more populations separated each by several miles from the other.

All told, I was rewarded with finding about 20 plants in three scattered populations.  A rewarding day and a refreshing one as well...being immersed in a sea of green foliage does wonders for a soul that lives in an every-day world violated by concrete and asphalt.

You can read more about this species here:

>>> Platanthera integra profile page. <<< 

Fringe Orchid Trifecta

Two of my daughters, Sarah and Hannah, and I made a recent trip to the panhandle of Florida in search of various species of Platanthera - specifically P. ciliaris, P. chapmanii, P. blephariglottis, P. cristata and P. integra.  I had gone specifically seeking P. integra - the Orange Fringeless Orchid - a diminutive plant that is nonetheless lovely in its own right. Many of the photographs I had of these species were dated, taken with older, lower-resolution cameras, so my photo collection was in need of an upgrade. 

Driving down the highway through the Apalachicola National Forest, we enjoyed the sight of many summer and fall blooming species of plants - colic roots, crow poison, meadow beauties, pine lilies, and blazing stars (just beginning to open).  There were also many carnivorous plants, well out of bloom, but sporting their deadly leaves - pitcher plants, sundews, and butterworts, and quite well naturalized venus flytraps.  I always love driving through these moist pine flatwoods and discovering what is in bloom that day.

We first visited a known colony of the orange fringed orchid, Platanthera ciliaris, that I have known for more than a decade.   We were met with about ten plants in various stages of bud and bloom.  Below is one of the better photographs we took that day:

Beyond this, we had some idea of where to look for the remaining species, but hunting these things is never an exact science.  Sarah was the first to spot one of our quarry - Platanthera chapmanii in full bloom.  These are several weeks early compared to their usual blooming season.  They can be differentiated from the larger P. ciliaris by the size of their flowers and their general shape.  The column is more hooked, the fringes less pronounced and the lateral sepals less reflexed.  These are believed to be descended from hybrids of P. ciliaris x P. cristata, but exist now as a stable species in its own right.  

 

As an added bonus, a Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans) was perched on this plant, awaiting a hapless pollinator.  It is quite common to encounter spiders on orchid flowers.  They are obviously instinctively aware that if they lie in wait on a flower, their prey will come right to them.

We puttered around for awhile, trying to find the Orange Fringeless Orchid (Platanthera integra) in flower.  Alas, it was not meant to be this particular day.  After a long and fruitless search for even a single precocious individual, we had to head home.  On the way back, we saw some more of what we thought were P. chapmanii.  As we got out of the car, it turned out that we had found a small colony of Platanthera cristata, the Crested Fringed Orchid.  This was a rather unexpected treat. One of the individuals was extremely large for this species, which is usually about half in all proportions compared to P. ciliaris.  This plant was easily as tall as a robust P. ciliaris with a flower head twice as tall as any other P. cristata that I have seen.  It was really an amazing sight:

It was, all-in-all, a very productive trip.  Now to locate some P. integra...

You can find out more information about these species (and many more) on the native orchid gallery by clicking the picture at the top of this blog titled "View the Gallery".

Florida Native Plant Society Annual Conference

I had been graciously invited to speak at the 2012 Florida Native Plant Society annual conference in Plant City, FL that was held from May 17-20, 2012.  My presentation Orchids in Our Backyard : Florida's Wild Orchids on Saturday, May 19 was very well received.  I will be presenting its sequel, with a brand new cast of characters taken from Florida's rich orchid heritage, at the 2013 native plant society conference held in the Jacksonville area.  I hope to see you there!

The Senator - R.I.P.

My apologies for not posting to this blog for awhile...life has been very busy as of late between my real job as a software engineer and family obligations.

My first post for this year is a sad one.

As I related in a previous post, the Orlando area was once home to the oldest and largest cypress tree in the U.S. and the fifth oldest tree in the world, at 3500 years old. Its residence was in Big Tree Park, a park dedicated in 1929 by President Calvin Coolidge. I felt sure that having lived so long, that my grandchildren and their grandchildren would, in turn, be able to enjoy this one-of-a-kind tree that had been around since the time of the Egyptian pyramids. Alas, this will not be so.


You see, a very selfish woman named Sara Barnes (click here to see the news article) decided to trespass on park property at night in order to feed her methamphetamine addiction, which was apparently something she did often. Near the big tree, she lit a fire so she could better see the drugs she was taking. On this very dry winter night, the fire quickly spread out of control and quickly burned through the center of the somewhat hollow tree. Firefighters bravely strung nearly a mile of hose to reach the tree and try to put out the fire, but it was too late. Within a matter of hours, the massive tree came crashing to the ground. 3500 years of history erased by a woman with a drug habit.



My family had only recently moved to the Orlando area, but we had visited this tree and park quite often. Thankfully, there is still a large tree on the property, Lady Liberty, estimated to be a mere 2000 years old, and there are a few other large trees in the nearby Black Hammock Preserve and Soldier Creek hiking trails...but the Senator was the oldest of them all, and now he is gone. Let's hope that Seminole County does a better job of guarding the remaining tree at the park so we don't get a repeat performance by another arsonist.

R.I.P.