This orchid was growing in a roadside ditch near a research plot in the Goethe State Forest. I spotted a number of patches of this fairly common species.
Did you know that the orchid family is the most diverse family of vascular plants in the world with some 20,000 different species? Most of these occur in the tropics as epiphytes, which is fancy ecology talk for 'grows in the crotch of a tree (usually)'. Florida is interesting because it is one of few places where epiphytic and terrestrial (ones that grow on the ground) orchid species overlap. Check out this great website on the orchids of Florida.
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