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. <<<
6 comments:
Um show, maravilhosa
abraços
Thanks for allowing me to see these beautiful native orchids. ❤
You have taken us to heaven through such a beautiful Pics of Platanthera integra. Really marvelous Pics and marvelous flowers.
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I'm new to your site. Was surfing the net for information on native orchids of Florida. Thank you for this lovely and informative blog. I'd like to comment here about a post you made in March about the loss of 3500-year-old Senator. I agree that it's a tragic and unfortunate loss of our natural history, however I find all the more tragic your description of the lost soul, the drug addicted woman responsible for this. You write: "3500 years of history erased by a woman with a drug habit." And you close the blog by implying that she's an arsonist. You've summed up a life, a human life, in a couple of ugly sentences. Not a word in your piece about how she fared in the fire. No matter that the natural world is probably lost on her because drugs have taken over her mind and spirit. Because of her very unfortunate choice to light her drugs in proximity of Senator (interesting that you've named a tree, but leave her nameless and faceless)and cause its destruction, she too is worthy of destruction?
We really are all one. We must nurture and grow our outer and inner landscapes if we and the planet are to survive.
Karyn, I do indeed mention her name and link to the news article describing the situation more in depth, so anyone can read more about her, see her picture, etc.
She is, indeed, a lost soul, but that does not lessen the crime that was committed here. She trespassed onto public property and lit an illegal, unauthorized fire to better see the drugs she was taking.
That is arson.
The result of that arson was the death of a tree that stood for millenia...one of the oldest known trees in the world. She was uninjured in the fire...it was only because she bragged about it to friends and showed cell phone video that she took that investigators were even able to determine the cause of the fire--previously, it had been deemed possibly a natural event.
Addiction may be entrapping, but there is a component of selfishness involved...the addict ceases to care for others who care for her by continuing her self-destructive behavior, causing pain, heartache and grief for those who love her. This person further showed a callous disregard for others' property by trespassing in the park and lighting a fire, a habit that she regularly did.
I never advocate her destruction, but I do think she should be punished for her crimes. Just because they were fostered by addiction does not exonerate her in the slightest, even if you could argue that her judgment was impaired by her addiction.
A crime was committed here...and what might have otherwise have been a petty crime happened to rob us all of an irreplaceable living organism. It is a crime against us all.
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