Ghost Orchid Hunting 2014

Last Sunday, my dad and I randomly decided to take a drive out to the same spot as last year to look for ghost orchids.  We knew it was going to be a lot drier than last year but were shocked that it was completely dry except for a few puddles!  We were in the hammock about 10 minutes before I spotted this first ghost orchid of the day!  

I found it by looking on the same trees as last year that I had marked in my GPS.  I did notice, though, that it is much easier to find them by searching for the roots on the trees and then seeing if there is a bloom attached rather than searching for the flower to begin with.  We kept wandering around the hammock searching for more.  I heard some voices nearby and since we were in a "secret" location, we kept very quiet.  The silence was broken when I near screamed from realizing my foot was inches from a very angry Cottonmouth.

I jumped away and my dad just kept asking, "How did you even see it??"  It was just perfectly camouflaged.  I've had so many close encounters with snakes now that I'm very seriously going to purchase a pair of snake boots for expeditions like this one.  I finally calmed down and we were wandering further into the hammock when a man snuck up behind me and starting chanting fake Native American noises and saying "You may not enter!".  I quickly realized it was a hiking buddy of mine out there with 2 others from our group!  Five sets of eyes are better than two so collectively we started finding a ton of ghost orchids.  We found a lot of doubles and a lot of them were low to the ground to make for fantastic photographs!

After searching and finding so many, we decided to head out after some last pictures.  Our friends stayed behind and continued searching for ghost orchids and other rare flora.

Dad and me in front of an old growth cypress

                                                             Dingy star orchid

Ghost Orchids

I guess my dad and I finally got caught up in all the hype about seeing a ghost orchid.  Ghost orchids are beautiful white orchids that only grow in a few areas of the world.  The Everglades being one of them.  They only bloom between June and August and one of the reasons they are so rare is that they can only be pollinated by the giant sphinx moth. Ghost orchids were also featured in the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean which was turned into the movie Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage.

We decided that this was our next "challenge".  Upon doing some research I came up empty handed because apparently, the location of ghost orchids is very secretive information.  I even found out that there is an Orchid Mafia in South Florida that feels it is their duty to protect these locations from orchid thieves.  During my research, I narrowed our search locations down to Fakahatchee Strand, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and Big Cypress.  So basically the entire Everglades.  I cannot divulge details but we eventually found out where to go.

We set out this past Thursday morning knowing we were in for a very wet hike.  Once we got to the bog the water was waist deep.

Our "tour guide" told us what to keep our eyes out for but even then they can still be difficult to find.  We found our first one after just a few minutes.

First Ghost Orchid of the Day

They are truly spectacular flowers!  I have seen many tropical, bright colored orchids but these are just incredible.  They are so delicate and detailed.  We realized we wanted to see many more.  After a few more minutes of searching around the swamp, we found another!

In all, we spent a few hours in this bog searching for ghost orchids and were lucky enough to find 10!  Here are some more photos:

Double Ghost

The only information I can give you if you want to see one for yourself is to head to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary where they have a super ghost orchid plant on a tree visible from their boardwalk.  If you click the previous link, they keep their page updated on when it is blooming.