I had the opportunity to photograph an area of the Everglades that was absolutely loaded with orchids. We came across dozens of
Trichocentrum maculatum, hundreds of
Prostechea boothiana and
Encyclia tampensis, a few
Polystachya concreta and of course,
Cyrtopodium punctatum.
Most of the Trichocentrum had huge flower spikes, but the spikes withered around the top due to the fly that lays its eggs in the spike. I was really hoping to find one the fly missed, I have wanted to see these in flower forever!
The Prostechea are going to be even more prolific judging by all of the seed pods. There were already some seed pods on the Cyrtopodium as well! And of course the Polystachya and Encyclia were loaded with seed pods.
The show stopper was this massive and quite famous cigar:
A close up (which you should full view):
My favorite shot from the day:
And the last one for today:
I'm going to work on some more shots and will eventually post them on my flickr account (
Flickr: Justin E. Parkkonen's Photostream).
Cyrtopodium punctatum
Threaded Mode
