Photographs from Apalachicola

            During our visits to the Apalachicola National Forest for exploration and research, Theresa Pitts-Singer took photographs of the flora, fauna, and landscape.  Here are some of those photographs for you to view, along with a bit of commentary from Theresa.  Just click on an image for a larger view.
          

•   The endangered Florida skullcap, Scutellaria floridana, occurs at this site among  pitcher plants, Sarracenia flava.  A special video-recording system is shown; the video recorder is inside a surveillance box and a laptop computer in another metal box.  A battery sits on the ground and serves as a power source.  The video was used to monitor insects visiting Florida skullcap flowers.

•   A couple of carpenter bees visited Florida skullcap flowers.  Instead of entering a flower from the front and serving as pollinators, however, the bees stole nectar from the base of the flower, as shown here.  Notice how the weight of the bee on the top of the flower bends the flower over.  The bee then stabs the base of the flower with her mouthparts and laps up the nectar.

•    The is a nice photograph of Florida skullcap early in the morning, still wet from dew.  It shows the brilliant purple color of the flower and the speckled white "landing pad" under the flower hood.  The sigma (female part) is exerted from under the hood where the anthers (male parts) are enclosed.  Two buds appear at the top of the stem; the 2 newest flowers are below them; 2 older flowers are at the edge of the picture.

•   These photos show a sweat bee (Family Halictidae) flying to a Florida skullcap flower, landing, and then crawling into the hood to collect pollen.

•    This is the flower head of Macbridea alba.  One can see why it is called "white-birds-in-a-nest": the buds look like eggs; the flowers look like heads of chicks with gaping mouths; the green base of the flower head looks like a nest.

•    Here a sweat bee (Family Halictidae) visits Harper's Beauty (Harperocallis flava).  Sweat bees sometimes spent several minutes gathering pollen from anthers.  The bees visited Harper's Beauty more often in the afternoon after other yellow flowers in the area (Xyris baldwinina) had closed- see below.

•   Xyris baldwiniana, yellow-eyed grass, occurs in habitats similar to those of Harper's Beauty.  Sweat bees visit them while they are open in the mornings until they close around noon.

•    Candyweed, Polygala lutea, appears in the same moist habitats as Harper's Beauty.  A local name for this flower is "bog button".

•    Lophiola aurea has striking maroon flowers with long, golden hairs.  The flowers contrast with the white fuzz (pubescence) that covers the upper part of the plant.

•    Sweat bees (Family Halictidae) gathered pollen from these fuzzy Lophiola plants.

•    Here is another "beauty", Meadow Beauty, Rhexia alifanus.  Bumble bees seem to like these flowers and collected pollen from them by "buzzing" the flower.  These flowers are quite common, occurring in many of the habitats of the endangered plants that we study.

•    This plant is a carnivore- it eats insects and spiders.  It is called a dew-thread, Drosera filiformis.  Sticky droplets capture tiny insects and spiders that are then digested by enzymes secreted by the plant.  These plants are common in wet areas.

•    These plants also eat insects and spiders like the dew-thread.  They are sundews, Drosera brevifolia.  They are always underfoot when exploring wet forest habitats.

•   When one thinks of wetland plants, pitcher plants like this Sarracenia purpurea often come to mind.  These are also insect-eating plants.  The insects crawl down into the hollow leaves.  Downward pointing hairs keep the insects from being able to climb out.  Special fluids inside the "pitchers" digest the fallen arthropods, giving nutrients to the plant.

•    Sarracenia flava, the yellow pitcher plant, is common in the wetlands of this national forest.  Besides serving as traps for eating insects, the hollow leaves are used by some large solitary wasps (Family Sphecidae) as nesting cavities.

•    It is always a delight to get a chance to see orchids.  This one is a species of Calopogon.  In Greek, the name of this plant means "beautiful beard".  The beard is the fringe of hairs on the upper part of the flower, the lip.  This type of orchid is unusual in having the lip in this position.

•    I often found another orchid, Pogonia sp., when walking through wet habitats.  The name of this orchid also refers to the beard, this time on the lower part of the flower.  The lip is in the usual position in this group of orchids.

•    It took a patient and steady hand to take a picture of this cute little grasshopper on a plant stem.  It kept moving to the other side of the stem when I approached.  This is one of my favorite pictures. 

•    Spiders are everywhere.  This becomes very apparent when walking through the forest in the early morning.  Tiny dewdrops bring out the photogenic quality of the abodes of these amazing predators.