Subject: Vanilla Orchid in Florida?

From: Marc Andelman <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Aug 1995 17:04:49 GMT

Last fall,  I was hiking a few miles from a road in the Fakahatchee
swamp in Florida.  This is known the be the best place in North
Americal for orchids, with many ephphytic species that occur no
where else.  I saw a large vanilla bean orchid twining up a cypress
tree.  Does anyone have an opinion on if this is known to occur in
the wild in Florida?  Another unusual finding on loop road in the
everglades as a Chicle Tree,   or Dilly.

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From: Gary Poyssick <[email-masked]>
Date: 12 Aug 1995 14:36:33 GMT

The plant you saw is called Vanilla planifolia, and is very common in 
the fakahatchee. That's a really cool place, eh? I've seen panthers in 
there, and have identified over 50 orchid species, some very rare. 
Storms have moved many bahamian and carribean species into the swamps 
over the years, We think we'll start seeing Vandas growing there as a 
result of Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the southern Florida 
nursuries, spraying thousands of plants in a westward direction.

Can you believe the royal palms in there? How bout the stumps of the old 
cypress trees? I have pictures from the turn of the century, before they 
built the orange-crate factory in Copeland and cut down all but eight or 
ten of those seven hundred year old trees. That's a weird, beautiful, 
and spooky place. You should spend some nights in there -- the eyes that 
look at you from the dark can be somewhat unsettling. There are many 
abandoned homesites in there too.