Show Your Support For Native Orchids

We've added a brand new bumper sticker to our web shop. For only $5 and some change (for tax, shipping, etc.), you can proudly show your support for our native orchids:




Click the image above to visit the web store.

A portion of the proceeds goes toward funding native orchid conservation efforts.

A Poem: Web

She unfurls threads of finest gossamer,
tying together violent strands,
where her victims meet their end,
where her children find beginning.
Here lies beauty,
here lies fear.
Here is death,
and renewed life.
The web that ties all things together...

© 2010 Prem Subrahmanyam, All rights reserved.

Flutterby: Encyclia tampensis (Florida Butterfly Orchid) from Sarasota County, Florida

We didn't quite make it to Myakka River State Park the other day. We were diverted by a report of a specimen-sized Butterfly Orchid in flower in a nearby wildland, so we went there instead. By the time we finished the 1.6 mile hike to the orchid and back, the children were hot and tired, so we decided call it quits early and to head over to a friend's house and cook up some barbecue. Our friend ended up accidentally putting a bit too much charcoal in the grill and it became about as hot as the inside of a volcano...I am still waiting for some of those singed arm hairs to grow back. Fun times!

Here are two images of this impressive specimen plant...over one hundred 1.5-inch flowers on multiple flower spikes (click to see the images at full size):




You can read more about this orchid at my Florida Butterfly Orchid Webpage:

Click here to find out more about Encyclia tampensis - The Florida Butterfly Orchid

Enjoy!

---Prem

Corkscrew Swamp's 'Super Ghost' Orchid Is Starting To Bloom Again!

July 3, 2010: Corkscrew Swamp's 'Super Ghost' orchid is starting to bloom again. According to the following article:

Ghost Orchid article

The first of fourteen flower buds is opening. This is the only ghost orchid whose location is not kept hidden from the public, owing to the fact that it is far off the boardwalk (about 100 feet) and 40 feet up a tree. There are other ghost orchids that grow elsewhere in the Big Cypress Swamp, Fakahatchee Strand State Park, etc., but their location is a closely guarded secret to prevent illegal poaching.

Corkscrew Swamp is located near Naples, Florida and is a wonderful place to visit, featuring a two-plus mile boardwalk through the heart of one of the last stands of old growth baldcypress trees in the US. In addition to visiting a botanical paradise unlike anything else in the world, birds and other wildlife are often visible just off the boardwalk, seemingly oblivious to the people gawking at them. To plan your trip there, visit their website at:

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

There are also a number of hotels and restaurants in the area offering exclusive 'ghost orchid rates' for visitors coming in to see the rare flowers. You can find out more at:

www.paradisecoast.com

To find out more about the Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii), visit the following link:

Ghost Orchid Information Page on FLNativeOrchids.com

Enjoy!

---Prem