Corkscrew Swamp Visit

Last Week I visited Lynn in Fort Meyers. We both have finished our vaccine regimen - she, because she volunteers in a hospital and me, because I teach adults. One of our days down there we visited the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

It is one of the last stands of native, old growth Bald Cyprus forest in North America.

This is a "Rat Snake". Apparently (mostly) harmless. 

This was all swamp grass out there.

The picture above is also of the swamp, but the brown shows how this swamp functions. It is ONLY filled with rain water - the water flow from the central everglades swamp was cut off decades ago. So it is filled with rain water from June - October, the draws down over time.

Some dead and some alive Bald Cyprus trees provide a home for "air plants" and some orchids. 

It is also home to some of the less than 2000 "ghost orchids", all that are left in the wild. They don't show you exactly where, because there are only 2000 left in the wild. And they are hard to find since they have no leaves, only green tendrils on trees until they flower.

Finally, I got a great picture of Lynn - smiling, looking great with open eyes (a rare gift in her shots, I have tens, nay hundreds of shots of Lynn's eyelids.)