"The ghost blooms in June, July and August... Sightings are rare... navigating the swampy wilds of the Fakahatchee Strand, an 85,000-acre linear state preserve in the Everglades.
... the news that a ghost orchid in full flower is perched high in a bald cypress tree just 150 feet off the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp in Collier County is... amazing to those who have seen them and those who have sought them. ... Im surprised to say the least, said Susan Orlean, who wrote... The Orchid Thief, published in 1998. The search for the ghost orchid is a central theme in the book, which detailed the exploits of John Laroche of Naples, a real-life thief of orchids, including the elusive ghost. Orlean began researching the book in 1994, but to this day has never seen a blooming ghost orchid... Orlean spent hours tromping through the innards of the Fakahatchee Strand in her search. ... Her book was the basis for the 2002 movie Adaptation, in which actor Chris Cooper portrayed Laroche and Meryl Streep played Orlean. The Fakahatchee Strand was the setting for part of the movie, where park ranger Mike Owen has monitored ghost orchids and other protected orchids... for almost 14 years. Owen returned three of the ghost orchids among the 84 total orchids Laroche poached Dec. 21, 1993 to the Fakahatchee. The next June one of them bloomed, marking the first time Owen ever saw a ghost orchid in full flower. ... The ghost has no leaves. All it is is a mass of roots with chlorophyll, he said. The plant takes 15 to 20 years to bloom and its only pollinator is the giant sphinx moth, he said. ... Clyde Butcher... black-and-white photographer of the Everglades, went into the Fakahatchee in 1999 and came out with his now-famous photo of a solitary ghost orchid bloom. ... The ghost orchid at Corkscrew Swamp is 60 feet in the air... Its height may keep it safe from poachers [hopefully !]. Another ghost orchid that bloomed just 100 feet from the one Butcher photographed was stolen in 2005, Owen said. The poachers chopped the top 18 inches off the tree, including the bloom." URL : http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070710/NEWS0105/307100010/1075 ************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
