Already made itself famous in the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief, the endangered and rare ghost orchid is known to many who have read the book or have watched the fictional movie spinoff Adaptation.
in book movie found 9
For them it would surely be a matter of excitement to know that the flower has been spotted blooming in Naples' Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in real-life after 12 long years.
Thanks to the Naples photographer Ralph Arwood, who spotted the rare ghost orchid growing high in an old cypress tree in the southwest Florida nature preserve, and spent hours waiting to get a shot of the rare blooms.
Excited with the finding, Arwood said,
They're very rare, and this one is unusual because it has so many flowers. They're pretty impressive flowers, too, as big as your hand. It's nice to have it at Corkscrew. If it's here, it's safe.
Though it is not known for how long the flower has been blooming there about 45 feet off the ground in a tree, the ghost orchid is known to stay blooming for about two weeks.
Found with a big, old root mass on it, and with its blooming scheduled in June and July when cypress are leafed out, it is believed that a cypress branch might be covering it up for all those years hiding it away from any broadway passerby.
Is it the Hurricane Wilma that eventually exposed it to light and viewing? That's for the researchers to find out. What makes the rare orchid so newsy and interesting to us is it's having nine flowers, which is triple the usual number.
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