Florida's Corkscrew Swamp and Ghost Orchid

[i]Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
the
Boardwalk Tour
and
Ghost Orchid

A two and one quarter mile raised boardwalk takes visitors through several distinct habitats found within the 11,000 acre Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, including the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in North America.



This natural system is managed by the National Audubon Society to maintain the native plants and animals found here and to preserve the natural processes that have been occurring here for thousands of years. The aerial photo below shows a view of the boardwalk area.



The boardwalk begins in pine flatwoods at the Blair Audubon Center. A little bit futher along, a spur leads to the site of an old 'plume hunters camp' that is also in the flatwoods. Oak and hardwood hammocks dot the area.

Long ago, most of Florida was open pine forest and these were created and kept open by periodic natural fires, so the plants growing here need to be able to recover quickly after the burns. Although at a higher elevation than the wetlands, the general lack of topography gives an advantage to plants that can also withstand occasional flooding.

Southern Slash Pine, Cabbage Palms, and Saw Palmetto dominate the area, and a host of wildflowers are in bloom throughout the year. Wildlife in the pine flatwoods varies with the seasons. When the palmetto berries ripen in the fall, deer, raccoons, and occasionally black bears are drawn to the abundant food supplies.
Cardinals, woodpeckers, vireos, mockingbirds, and red-shouldered hawks are seen and heard throughout the year and are joined seasonally by the migrating warblers, towhees and buntings. Wood Storks and swallow-tailed kites soar overhead during their spring and early summer nesting seasons.


The boardwalk trail continues across and along the wet praire. It is a type of marsh dominated by grasses, sedges and rushes, with sand cordgrass being the most common. The time it is flooded during a year is short compared to other wetland habitats. It is slightly lower in elevation than the pine flatwoods, and a combination of nutrient-poor soils, fire, and flooding help keep this grass-dominated praire from becoming a pine flatwood or a cypress swamp.

During the spring dry-down, herons, egrets and ibis forage in the grasses while hawks hunt the edge of the pond cypress. Wood Storks soar overhead and the occasional sand hill cranes move into the pine flatwoods. As the summer rains begin, deer move into the praire to feed on the fresh growth and the calls of the frogs are everwhere. The swallow-tailed kites are skimming the tops of the pine trees searching for food.

During the fall when water levels are at their highest, alligators move throughout the grasses and a variety of mammals cross the praire, frequently using the boardwalk to reach the ripening berries and figs in the cypress forests.


Pond Cypress is a natural buffer between the bald cypress forest and the wet praire/pine flatwood. It serves as an ecotone (an area where two different habitats meet), creating an environment where wildlife from both the wet praire and the bald cypress forest mingle.

Pond cypress are smaller than the bald cypress that are more commonly found deeper in the swamp. Although stunted by the nutrient poor soils on the edge of the praire, these pond cypress trees are well over 100 years old. Scientists are not in total agreement whether pond cypress and bald cypress are two distinct species. DNA testing suggests they are, but they are known to hybridize. Superficially, the pond cypress has a slightly different appearance.....the bark is more deeply ridged, the needles spiral around the stems, and they grow in much closer proximity to each other.

Understory plants include sawgrass, ferns, air plants, wax myrtle, strangler fig, and a viriety of flowering plants ranging from water lilies and pickerel weed to wild iris and the bladderworts.


Standing like sentinels guarding a fortress, bald cypress trees dominate the swamps of South Florida. The old growth bald cypress trees here at Corkscrew are 600 years old and reach heights of 130 feet and more. They comprise the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in North America.

Swamps develop over time under the right conditions. As organic (peat) soils accumulate, trees begin to have an advantage over other wetland plants. Because the peat may be only several feet deep, mature cypress trees rely on an extensive system of horizontal roots; cypress 'knees' grow up from the roots to provide the extra stability necessary to have weathered hundreds of years of storms and hurricanes.

Natural cavities in the old growth trees provide homes for barred owls, screech owls, wood ducks, raccoons, and other cavity nesters, while pileated, red-bellied, and downey woodpeckers excavate their own holes. Because the cypress trees lose their needles for several months during the winter, light filters down to the forest floor enabling a rich diversity of understory plants to thrive. Epiphytic orchids and bromeliads grow on the pond apple trees, ferns colonize fallen trees and establish themselves on the cypress knees, and red maples take advantage of breaks in the canopy.


Less than a half mile into the cypress swamp, a bordwalk spur gradually rises to an elevated observation platform overlooking the central marsh, which is encircled by the old-growth cypress forest. In South Florida, sawgrass marshes dominate. The soil is organic, built up over hundreds of years from dead plant material......peat. Typical marsh plants are sawgrass, pickerel weed, cattails and bulrush, although the costal plain willow is colonizing the area. Periodic fires help restore regular marsh vegetation.

During the spring, wood stork nesting colonies can be spotted with binoculars and spotting scopes in the tops of cypress trees on the north and west edges of the marsh.

Swallow-tailed kites, vultures, anhingas and storks catch the thermals to soar high above the marsh while vireos, cardnals, and blackbirds search for food among the plants. Raccoons hunt along the ground while alligators and otters are in the wetter areas. Queen butterflies use the twining White Vine as a nectar source and larval plant, while Viceroy butterflies prefer the willow.


The Lettuce Lakes along the boardwalk trail are in the bald cypress forest, but when water levels are too deep, no trees can grow. These deep, treeless channels within a swamp are called sloughs (pronounced slews).

The deeper water and open skies attract a variety of wildlife, especially during the spring when shallower ponds elsewhere begin to dry up. Although they are lakes, the water surface is often covered with a mat of floating vegetation, primarily watter lettuce and frog's bit, which provides shelter for crustaceans, fish, small reptiles, amphibians and insects. These in turn are prey for the larger animals, notably alligators and wading birds.The floating plants are themselves food for turtles and a variety of insects. Open benches and benches under rain shelters allow visitors to rest and enjoy the show.


The boardwalk begins and ends at the Blair Audubon Center, which since its opening has served as the model for other National Audubon Society Centers in the United States. In addition to serving as the entrance to the Sanctuary and the boardwalk, it houses the Swamp Senses Media Theater, a tearoom with a food service counter, two fully equipped classrooms, a foyer featuring paintings, sculptures and photography by regional artists, and the Nature Store. The store has field guides, books, optics to rent or purchase, and tons of photographs.

During the late fall, winter and spring, bird feeders placed at the start of the boardwalk attract thousands of birds such as buntings, cardnals, woodpeckers, chipping sparrows and towhees. Native plants in the adjoining butterfly garden and around the Living Machine, draw hummingbirds and butterflies throughout the year.

Ghost Orchid...

Natural Range:
The Ghost Orchid is native to Southwest Florida and Cuba. In Florida, its range is very localized in swamps in the Fakahatchee, Big Cypress, and Corkscrew areas of Collier and Hendry Counties.

Status:
The Ghost Orchid is an endangered species. It is illegal under both state and federal laws to remove or relocate.

This Ghost Orchid is growing on the trunk of a 400-500 year old Bald Cypress tree. The previously highest known location of any Ghost Orchid in Collier County was in the Fakahatchee Strand at 23 feet. This plant is approximately 45-50 feet above ground. Tipically, 1-2 blooms appear although there may be as many as 10, and occasionally a plant will bloom twice in the same season. This orchid bloomed three times between July 7 and October 15. The first time, it had 12 blooms at the same time, the second time it had 10 blooms at the same time, and the third time it had 3 blooms at the same time. A Ghost Orchid has not been observed from the Corkscrew boardwalk for at least 12 years. It is estimated that this plant is 30-35 years old.

Habitat:
Ghost Orchids are found on trees in hardwood hammocks, sloughs and cypress domes. Host trees include pop ash (most common), pond apple (second most common), and bald cypress, maple and oak. Epiphytic on other plants, and leafless, the photosynthesis occurs through the roots. The roots are gray-green and typically about 20 inches long. Seeds are dispersed by the wind and must land on rough-barked trees. Germination does not occur unless a particular fungi is present where the seed lands.

Blooms appear May through August, rarely in other months, and heaviest blooming is in July. Typically, there are one or two blooms per plant, but there can be as many as 10. The flowers are white to creamy green colored and usually 4-1/2 to 5 inches in size. Ghost Orchids are infrequent bloomers with flowers not appearing for years between seasons when they do not bloom. Flowers open in succession, usually 1 to 2 at a time and the individual blooms last 10-14 days. The orchid is nocturnally fragrant and the lower lip produces two long, petals that twist slightly downward, resembling the back legs of a jumping frog, hence the common name, 'Frog Orchid'.

Pollination:
Ghost Orchids are not self-pollinating. Pollination is done by the Giant Sphinx Moth, the only local insect with a long enough proboscis (4-5 inches).

notes:
The Ghost Orchid received its name because the plant has no leaves (only roots) and when it blooms, the flower appears to be floating in mid-air. The epithet lindenii in the scientific name is derived from its discoverer, the Belgian plant-collector Jean Jules Linden who saw this orchid for the first time in Cuba in 1844. It was the subject of Susan Orlean's novel "The Orchid Thief", but she has never seen one in bloom.
Commercial propagation of Ghost Orchids illegally removed from the wild rarely survive. When grown commercially, they must be propagated from seed, a process that takes 7+ years.

Hours of Operation

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
is open for visitors every day of the year except during violent weather.

Hours
October 1 thru April 10: 7:00 AM to *5:30 PM
April 11 thru September 30: 7:00 AM to *7:30 PM

*Note:
Entrance within one hour (4:30 PM October - April 10,
or
6:30 PM April 11 - September of closing is not allowed:
there is insufficient time to be out of the sanctuary by closing time.

All visitors must be off the boardwalk before the closing time unless a special program is being conducted by the Corkscrew staff. No individual is allowed on the boardwalk after dark. This regulation was established for the protection of wading birds that roost or nest near the boardwalk. Any disturbance of these birds at night might result in nest failure. This regulation applies each month of the year.

Location
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is located northeast of Naples, Florida, in Collier County. It is at the end of Sanctuary Road West, north of Immokalee Road (County Road 846), approximately 15 miles east of Exit 111 on
I-75. Visible, brown informational signs along Immokalee Road assist in finding the Sanctuary.
DO NOT take Exit 123 (Corkscrew Road)!

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
375 Sanctuary Road West
Naples, Florida 34120
telephone: (239) 348-9151
fax: (239) 348-1522

JacksFloridaBromeliads