"A bud about to burst, a tender, green root tip, the browning oldest flower and the pristine white baby bloom. Some visit it every day, talking to it like an old friend. Others take hundreds, even thousands of pictures...
At Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, the treasured blooms float high on the trunk of a 400- to 500-year-old bald cypress tree. Delicate white petals dance... in the breeze, disembodied and without leaves. Beneath, brown roots cling to the tree bark. ... in the Blair Audubon Center. Different habitat areas... 2.25-mile wooden boardwalk winds through them all. ... the ghost orchid is in bloom... you can see it from the boardwalk... It's about 50 feet up in a tree and about 150 feet out. There's a spotting scope so you can get a close look... if we're lucky, the sphinx moth comes in and sticks his long tongue down in there. His face brushes up against those little black dots that look like eyes and pollinates it... Last year... [Rod Wiley, a professional photographer] photographed it 28 days straight, taking 4,000 to 5,000 pictures. ... walks the mile along the boardwalk, spends 30 minutes setting up, waits for an hour or two... that moment of perfect light lasts only seconds.... He's there as often as he can be. ... The cypress canopy is thick where the ghost blooms, shading the boardwalk completely. The earth below is layered with needles, logs, leaves, roots" URL : http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jul/09/fans-come-and-go-apostles-ghost-orchid-are-faithfu/ video : http://www.naplesnews.com/videos/detail/ghostorchid photos : http://ms2.naplesnews.com/npdn/content/img/photos/2008/06/28/20080627NS-CP-ghostorchid2_t600.jpg http://ms2.naplesnews.com/npdn/content/img/photos/2008/06/28/20080627NS-CP-ghostorchid3_t600.jpg ******************* Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
