Along with fellow photographers Sharon Milligan and Larry Dees, I had a great trip up the Pascagoula River with Lynn and Benny McCoy of McCoy’s River and Marsh Tours (http://mccoyrivertours.com/) recently. We were headed out to investigate reports of our native, epiphytic orchid in bloom at nearly eye level. Now, we’ve got several native orchids here in the Deep South, and I’ve been lucky enough to photograph several of them this year, but our native ephiphytic orchid wasn’t one of them.
Oh, I reckon that I ought to talk about that epiphytic part for second…. Breaking down that big ostentatious word down into parts of “epi” and “phytic” give us it’s meaning of “upon” “plant”. So an epiphytic plant is a plant that grows ON ANOTHER PLANT. It depends on that plant for support, but not nutrients (it’s not a parasite). Our best known epiphytic plant down this way is Spanish moss. A little further south in Florida several epiphytic bromeliads can be seen. But our only native epiphytic orchid in Mississippi is the greenfly orchid.
Greenfly orchids can be found on magnolias, live oaks, tupelos, and other hardwoods in moist swamps & bluffs. They are often found in conjunction with resurrection fern. Greenfly orchid flowers are non-descript when compared to some of our other native orchids, but the little greenish, yellowish blossoms are attractive in their own right.
We carried our gear onto the stable, well-appointed boat the McCoy’s use for their river tours and began our short trip up the river in search of the orchid. Of course, we took a boat-load of photography equipment in case we saw something else to photograph…
Before we could even get up to speed, an American alligator swam across the bayou. There were several cypress and cypress snags that hosted birds or would have made nice scenic shots. Several wildlflowers were blooming out in the marsh as well. But we pressed on in search of the epiphytic orchid. The wild rice seedheads were beginning to fill out and had already attracted many red-winged blackbirds. There were also reports of early flocks of teal beginning to take advantage of the ripening seeds.
Male red-winged blackbird availing himself of ripening wild rice.
The first sight that really interrupted our progress and caused us to stop was a water-level osprey. While we would see many osprey and osprey nests on our short expedition, this was the only water-level osprey we would see. We killed the motor and allowed the current to carry us nearer the bird as a trio of cameras hammered off frame after frame. As we got closer, it was obvious that this was a juvenile osprey and that it had likely fallen into the water and climbed out on the log to dry off. Our concern mounted when it became obvious that the osprey was blind or nearly in one eye (which would really make depth perception as you dove for a fish
impossible). However, the bird flew off strongly and with no problem. Hopefully the nictitating membrane over its eye will return to functioning normally.
Osprey perched near a nest under construction.
A juvenile osprey that made a mistake and had to climb onto a water-level log to dry out.
As we pushed on up the river, we saw a number of cooters and yellow-blotched map turtles basking on logs. The yellow-blotched map turtle (aka yellow-blotched sawback) is a federally threatened species endemic to the Pascagoula River system. So it was a treat when one of them cooperated for photographic opportunity.
A yellow-blotched map turtle basking on a log.
When we arrived at the reported greenfly orchid location, we quickly found a large clump on a limb about 10 feet over the water (which is MUCH more accessible than the heights where they are “normally” spotted). There were hundreds of blossoms, but it was evident that just a week or so earlier that there had been THOUSANDS of blossoms. Then several additional clumps were located as well. Requisite shots were taken and mental notes were made to come back a littler earlier in 2014 and capture that large clump of greenfly orchids in their combined radiant glory!
An individual greenfly orchid making up part of one of the larger clumps that we located.
Greenfly orchid blossoms.
So, if you want to come along on a fun trip in late July of 2015, shoot the McCoys or me a message and tell us to put you on the list for a fun trip up the Pascagoula River in search of whatever nature offers us!
