Featured – Hal Horwitz – North American Orchid Conservation Center

Marsh Orchid – Dactylorhiza praetermissa subsp. Praetermissa

This plant is an immigrant, presumably from Great Britain. It has become naturalized in a few seepage slopes and bogs in eastern Canada. This example was in a large colony in St. John’s, Newfoundland in July.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

Clustered Lady’s Slipper – Cypripedium fasciculatum

The only North American Lady’s Slipper to have a cluster of drooping flowers atop its stem. Once pollinated the flowers assume a more upright posture as seen here. Endemic to western North America, this specimen was photographed in a moist coniferous forest in southern Oregon.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

Stream Orchid – Epipactis gigantea

Ranging from western North America westward to India, this beautiful plant is generally found in wet places. When the pollinator lands on its lip it is flipped upward to contact and carry away the pollen sacs. Photographed in Oregon.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

Florida Oncidium – Oncidium ensatum

Limited to three counties in southern Florida, this plant’s inflorescence can be over eight feet tall. Photographed in Everglades National Park, this is listed as endangered.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

Upland Spreading Pogonia – Cleistes bifaria

This species range from Virginia to Texas and are in open areas. Photographed in West Virginia.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

Columbia Lady’s Slipper – Cypripedium x columbianum

In the northwest, Mountain Lady’s Slipper and Yellow Lady’s Slipper will sometimes hybridize. This wonderful clone was photographed with the Canadian Rockies in the background in British Columbia.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

Greenman’s Hexalectris – Hexalectris grandiflora

The most beautiful of our non-photosynthetic terrestrial orchids, this gorgeous plant grows in only one county in the southern-most area of Texas in the heat of late summer. It can be found in pine-oak-juniper woodland, or in the case of this plant, in a rocky arroyo.
Photo © Hal Horwitz

HAL HORWITZ, PHOTOGRAPHER

Hal Horwitz was a pediatric dentist from Richmond, VA. In the 1980s he became fascinated with wildflowers and photographed little else. Hal developed a special interest in the orchids native to North America, and photographed nearly all the North American Species.
He and his wife, Helen, traveled from Florida to Newfoundland to Alaska capturing the beauty of wildflowers on film.
Hal taught numerous photography courses, showed multimedia presentations and lectured at symposiums, orchid societies, garden clubs, wildflower societies and civic groups.
His images have been published world wide in magazines, books, advertisements and digital productions.
“The orchid flora of North America exhibits wide variety in size, shape and color, and this selection of images has been chosen to exemplify not only their diversity but also to show a variety of approaches to photographing them. I am trying to show that there is no one right way to show their beauty. The challenge is for each person to find their own way of expressing their personal vision.”

Featured – Hal Horwitz