Featured — Fakahatchee Strand - North American Orchid Conservation Center

Yellow Helmet Orchid Polystachya concret

Summer rains feed the Fakahatchee, filling the swamp that supports a variety of epiphytic orchids like this blooming yellow helmet orchid.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Cigar Orchid Cyrtopodium punctatum

Cigar Orchids were once abundant, growing high in trees above the cypress swamps in southwest Florida. Logging in the 1930s and 40s, poaching, swamp drainage, and more recently, devastating freezes, have taken their toll on populations.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Cigar Orchid Cyrtopodium punctatum

The Cigar Orchid depends on rare native bees for cross-pollination. Rarely pollinated, pods may take a full year to grow and mature before they finally crack open, releasing talcum powder-like seeds to float their way to a new substrate where they may germinate and grow.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Many Flowered Grass Pink Calopogon multiflorus

The Many Flowered Grass Pink is the rarest of the grass pinks in Florida. Its growth and abundance is fire-dependent, requiring periodic wild fires or controlled burns to initiate emergence from the ground to flower.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Night Fragrant Epidendrum Epidendrum nocturnum

The Night Fragrant Epidendrum emits a pungent fragrance at night, as its name suggests. It is rarely seen in full bloom since it self-pollinates, often before the flowers open.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Night Fragrant Epidendrum Epidendrum nocturnum

Ants are often seen tending to this flower, patrolling back and forth along the stalk, and routinely nursing on a sweet droplet that exudes from the stem just behind the flower. In this way the flower attracts ants that may keep other invertebrates away in order for the flower to reproduce.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Clamshell Orchid Prosthechea cochleata var. triandra

The endangered Clamshell Orchid is popular among hobbyists and is often poached. The Florida populations of this orchid have an extra anther and produce more pollen than plants found in other parts of its range. This promotes self-pollination, an important adaptation when insect pollinators are not present.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Butterfly Orchid Encyclia tampensis

The Butterfly Orchid is locally abundant within the swamps and woodlands of south Florida. It can be quite showy and fragrant.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Butterfly Orchid Encyclia tampensis

Exotic scale insects and exotic ants have made their way to south Florida and threaten the Butterfly Orchid. The scales, with sucking mouthparts, extract sap from the orchid and the ants mine the honeydew exuded by the scales.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Florida Star Orchid Epidendrum floridense

The Florida Star Orchid is rare, endangered and primarily restricted to the Fakahatchee Strand swamp in southwestern Florida. It was first described in 1993, but thought to be extinct as a result of hard freezes in the 1980s. It has since been seen periodically in the Fakahatchee.

Photo © Larry W Richardson

Ribbon Orchid Campylocentrum pachyrrhizum

The Ribbon Orchid is one of the three leafless orchids in Florida. Its flat, ribbon-like roots are responsible for its name and distinguish it from other leafless orchids when not in flower. The yellow-orange flowers are seen in two rows, not very showy and only 3-5 mm long.

Needleroot Orchid Dendrophylax porrectus

The Needleroot Orchid, is a fairly common, small, leafless orchid with chlorophyllous roots often found on old citrus trees and near the edges of hardwood swamps and hammocks. The flowers are only up to 3mm in size but the capsules are much larger, and hang in little clusters, suggesting its other common name the "jingle bell orchid".

Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

The rare Ghost Orchid is a leafless orchid with green roots that absorb nutrients as well as photosynthesize to produce carbohydrates as a source of food.

Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

Restoration efforts for the Ghost Orchid begin with weaving the roots of laboratory-grown seedlings among the threads of a patch of burlap, then stapling it to a pop ash tree.

Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

The elusive Ghost Orchid, one of the rarest and most coveted of all North American wild orchids, haunts Fakahatchee Strand.

LARRY RICHARDSON, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST

Photo ©John Yuccas

The Fakahatchee Strand is a major slough, or drainage waterway, of Big Cypress Swamp that begins its 20 mile journey within the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. As it flows slowly southward to the Gulf of Mexico, it passes through the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve, Florida’s largest but least developed, state park. Strand is a local term for these linear swamps and the Fakahatchee is the largest and most unusual. Dense stands of cypress, pop ash and pond apple trees slow the water flow, providing crucial habitat for the endangered Florida panther and Everglades mink, and boasting the largest concentration and variety of orchids in the U.S. This month wildlife biologist and photographer Larry Richardson takes us on a swamp walk to explore the Fakahatchee -- dark waters, deep shade and just a few of its orchids.

Larry Richardson is a retired wildlife biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Florida Panther and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuges in Naples, Florida. A nature photographer since 1981, he is a founding member of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), having served as president and on its Board of Directors, and on NANPA’s philanthropic foundation. Larry co-authored the book, Florida’s Unsung Wilderness -- The Swamp in 2000, with photographer/writer Connie Bransilver and his work has been published worldwide. As a wildlife expert, he has appeared on ABC Nightly News, CBS This Morning, and National Geographic Explorer and on networks such as Animal Planet and Nickelodeon. He also hosted the PBS WGCU-TV series, Florida Landscape -- a program promoting native plant gardening.

His philosophy centers around "our need to practice CPR -- Conserve, Preserve and Restore -- on our environment, not just for nature's sake, but ours too.”

To see more of Larry’s photography, visit his web site.

Featured — Fakahatchee Strand

Yellow Helmet Orchid Polystachya concret

Cigar Orchid Cyrtopodium punctatum

Cigar Orchid Cyrtopodium punctatum

Many Flowered Grass Pink Calopogon multiflorus

Night Fragrant Epidendrum Epidendrum nocturnum

Night Fragrant Epidendrum Epidendrum nocturnum

Clamshell Orchid Prosthechea cochleata var. triandra

Butterfly Orchid Encyclia tampensis

Butterfly Orchid Encyclia tampensis

Florida Star Orchid Epidendrum floridense

Ribbon Orchid Campylocentrum pachyrrhizum

Needleroot Orchid Dendrophylax porrectus

Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax lindenii

LARRY RICHARDSON, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST

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