ナショナルジオグラフィックのインスタグラム(natgeo) - 9月28日 19時31分

Photo by @CarltonWard | Summer has come to an end and along with it ghost orchid blooming season in the Everglades. Since June I’ve made near weekly treks into swamps to visit blooming ghosts and service camera traps with precision laser triggers aiming close to blooms. The hope is to answer a mystery to science by capturing unprecedented photographs of a ghost orchid being pollinated. Notice the impressive length of the nectar spur — the thin tube extending from the back of the flower to the right in this photo. Check out @CarltonWard for a different view of this same flower. The giant sphinx moth is thought to be the only pollinator because it’s mouth parts are long enough to reach to the bottom of the nectar spur for the sweet reward that draws the moth deep enough into the flower to get pollen stuck on its head, or to share pollen already there from another ghost. Approximately 2000 ghost orchids exist in the wild, of which one in ten bloom each year and perhaps one in ten of those get pollinated — their only natural means of reproducing. It’s fair to say I’ve become obsessed with these ghosts — their mystery and the magic of the swamps where they survive. For three summers I’ve been drawn deep into the orchids’ watery world and it takes the blooming season ending for me to move on to other work. Meanwhile my friend @macstonephoto is on a parallel quest to document pollination at @corkscrewswamp and his subject still has 5 active blooms. Check out his work with NatGeo Explorer and orchid expert @Peter_Houlihan. Please join me as I follow the #pathofthepanther on a storytelling grant from @ナショナルジオグラフィック. @insidenatgeo @natgeocreative #chasingghosts #orchid #swamp #floridawildlifecorridor #floridawild #keepflwild

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• CarltonWard
• Peter_Houlihan