"Rick Cruz... into the Fakahatchee Strand State Park in Collier County in December... found a stunning white orchid. It was the albino form of the native clamshell orchid [Prosthechea cochleata]. Cruz photographed it on the spot, recording a flower that had not been seen since 1960.
That photograph is among Cruz's works on display at Everglades National Park and will be among orchid art shown at the Tamiami International Orchid Festival Saturday and Jan. 28... says Cruz... Two years ago, Mike Owens, then the manager of the Fakahatchee Strand [State Park], called me when there was a ghost orchid in bloom and asked if I wanted to see it. ... He explained how things were happening to the ecosystem and how people were poaching orchids, and it occurred to me that this was my new mission: to show people what is there and what we have to preserve.'' Now 38, Cruz has plunged headlong into that mission of photographing threatened and endangered native Florida plants... Cruz will display orchid photographs including the ghost orchid [Dendrophylax lindenii], clamshell, pygmy orchid [Encyclia pygmaea ?] and Cranichis muscosa, an orchid rediscovered in 2004 after 99 years of being lost. ... Cruz... ''Last year, I discovered 15 ghost orchids at the Fakahatchee that had not been documented before,'' he says. ``That place is now named for me: Cruz Slough.'' He also has been one of the few people to experience the scent of the ghost orchid. ''I've been out there from midnight to 4 a.m., sniffing the ghost orchid,'' he says. ``It's amazing. You sit there and it seems like every 30 or 40 minutes, it throws out a chum trail of perfume to attract a sphinx moth.'' article URL : http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/home/16501405.htm *********** photos : http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/16501/272294517698.jpg caption : [INTO NTO HIS WORK: Rick Cruz stands knee-deep in Matheson Hammock to photograph plants. He has waded through the Fakahatchee Strand to capture threatened or endangered species.] http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/16501/272294534199.jpg caption : [UNCOMMON: A ghost orchid thrives in the Fakahatchee Strand.] http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/16501/272294550700.jpg caption : [FOCUSED: Cruz captured this albino clamshell orchid in the Fakahatchee Strand in December. It hasn't been seen since 1960.] *********** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
