“Ping” went the strings of my heart – Liberty County, Florida — 2016-02-28

Pinguicula, that is… After presenting a program to the Spring Garden Symposium in Macon, Georgia, it was time to head south. Walter Ezell and I had made prior arrangements with our good friend, Eleanor Dietrich of Tallahassee, Florida to stay a few days at her place and work our way into the panhandle of Florida to look for some blooming Butterworts. The area we were to visit were in the Apalachicola National Forest — Liberty County, to be specific.

On my one and only visit to the area in December of last year, we managed to find a rather rare Gentian, Gentiana pennelliana or Wiregrass Gentian. What a beauty it was! Florida is loaded with beautiful as well as rare and endemic species. One in particular is the federally listed, Pinguicula ionantha or Godfrey’s Butterwort. It is found in only six Florida counties and nowhere else in the world.

As we entered the National Forest, here is the sign that tells us we have arrived:

Apalachicola National Forest sign

Another Florida friend, Floyd Griffith was to meet us in the small town of Sumatra, Florida to begin our quest. We met at a small grocery store in Sumatra and caravanned to the first site. This is a site that we had visited in December, but the plants were not in flower. On this day, however, they were in full bloom. Here are a few shots of some of the twenty or thirty plants we saw:

As you can easily see, the flower color varies from white with a purple center to violet and every shade in between. I was very excited to have the opportunity to photograph these rare plants. Without our great Florida friends, this would never have happened.

We also found a small cluster of plants that were in flower:

I forgot to mention that they prefer to grow in a very boggy/soggy environment. I slowly sunk into the mire as I photographed this group — so did my camera tripod! Here are a couple of close-ups of the flowers from this cluster of plants:

Most of the flowering plants had flower stems that were around 6 inches (15 cm) tall, but one plant had a flowering stem that was every bit of 1 inch (2.5 cm):

For those of you who may not be familiar with Butterworts, they are true carnivorous plants that trap small insects on the sticky top-side of their leaves. One the insect is trapped, it cannot escape, and it is slowly digested and assimilated into the structure of the plant.

There were three additional Butterworts at this location — two of which I had never photographed in flower. The first of these is not especially rare — In fact, it occurs in the Carolinas. But, I have never been lucky enough to find it. It is very small, and usually blooms under the cover of savannah grasses. Its name is Pinguicula pumila or Dwarf Butterwort. Floyd knew where to find a small population that was growing in a fairly open area, so they were easy to see and photograph:

As you can see, this species also has variably colored flowers — white to violet. The basal rosette of leaves is generally no larger than 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm).

The most common of the Butterworts in this area is Pinguicula lutea or Yellow Butterwort. This one is also rather common in the Carolinas as well as Georgia. Pinguicula lutea has rather large (up to 1 inch or 2.5 cm) lemon-yellow flowers which are quite easy to see against the tan backdrop of the savannah grasses:

There was still another Butterwort species, Pinguicula planifolia or Chapman’s Butterwort, that I had hoped to see, and Floyd knew exactly where to find them. So we drove to the next site with great anticipation. The leaves of this species varies in color from a dull greenish-red to a dark wine-red. Since it prefers a very wet environment, it is usually found in depressions in the savannahs — often growing completely submerged. On the image below, you can see the light reflecting off of the tiny glandular structures on the top of the leaves:

To my eye, this species has the most pleasing flowers of any of the Butterwort species we saw on this visit:

In the rightmost image, there is a small Sarracenia psittacina or Parrot Pitcher Plant just beginning to sprout its pitchers.

Notice the two Drosera capillaris or Pink Sundews, growing next to the Butterwort.

This almost wraps up the first day our adventure in the panhandle of Florida. After saying our goodbyes, Walter and I drove back to Eleanor’s where I wanted to photograph an orchid that she found growing in her backyard a few years ago. This species, Neottia bifolia or Southern Twayblade orchid is found from Quebec, Canada down the Atlantic coastal states and from Florida westward to Texas. Its flower color varies from deep burgundy red to pinkish-tan. The latter color makes it quite difficult to photograph, because the flowers blend in so well with the leafy background of the forest floor. This characteristic also makes it quite difficult to see in its natural habitat. Often, I have found myself looking for the two, green leaves in order to spot this plant in the woods. Having said that, Eleanor pointed out the five plants she has in her woods, and I set up to photograph them. I actually did this on several occasions and under varying lighting conditions to see which would work the best. Here are the results:

Note the quarter-dollar coin I placed on the leaf for scale. It is approximately 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. This is one of the largest specimens of this species I have ever seen.

Here is a close-up of the deeply lobed flowers:

The image on the left was made with natural evening sunlight backlighting the flowers. The image on the right is of the same plant was made with fill flash from my camera.

We even found one plant that was still in tight bud:

This just shows what one can accomplish with 10 hours in the field. Setting up for photographs requires a lot of patience and some small “landscaping” skills in order to reveal plants that are nestled deep in the savannah grasses. It also requires some bit of patience in dealing with varying light conditions which can make a huge difference in the outcome of the resulting images. The photographer must decide whether to provide additional light by a reflective surface or fill flash, or to provide shade from the harsh sunlight. I don’t always get it right — in fact, many of my better images are the result of dumb luck. In any case, photographing wildflowers is my passion, and I will never tire of the challenges — in fact, I welcome them, because it helps keep my photography senses sharp.

–Jim