Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary: How to See the Super Ghost Orchid

We’ve been in the car for almost four hours when we pull into the parking lot at at the Audubon Society Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. It’s nearly 10:30 AM on a hot and muggy August day. The sky beams a brilliant blue, and the sun throws harsh shadows at the asphalt beneath the trees lining the parking area.

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I aim Scarlett O’Jetta for one of those shadowed spots. The Super Ghost Orchid is blooming, and I’m here to check off a bucket list item – photographing this rare and endangered orchid.

My son, Nick, climbs out of the car into the humidity and immediately changes out of his long-sleeve hoodie into a short-sleeve tee. He rarely joins me for these adventures, but I’ve bribed him with food and a trip to hunt for shark teeth at Caspersen Beach when we finish here. After grabbing camera gear, the tripod, wallet, phones, and bug spray, we head towards the visitor center.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is an Audubon Society Florida sanctuary which encompasses more than 13,000 acres in Southwest Florida. Located northeast of Naples, Corkscrew Swamp is a vital part of South Florida’s unique ecosystems which also include Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. Visiting Corkscrew Swamp is like experiencing the western Everglades and taking a journey into the Everglades ecosystem.

About Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

This sanctuary is home to hundreds of animal species including alligators, deer, turtles, birds, panthers, and otters. Flowering plants display colorful blooms at nearly every turn.

The crimson red of swamp hibiscus. The pink of salt marsh mallow. The yellow of St. John’s Wort. The deep purple of pickerel weed. Air plants, ferns, and orchids cling to trunks and branches of cypress and maple trees. Deep along the boardwalk trail, ancient cypress trees tower overhead.

Though Corkscrew may be best known for its ghost orchid, its stand of ancient bald cypress is the largest old growth bald cypress forest in the world. Some of the trees are more than 500 years old.

It’s also the winter home of some of Florida’s original snowbirds; wood storks from all over the Southeastern US spend winter and early spring at Corkscrew. They mate, nest, and raise their young before dispersing to various states for the summer. It’s the largest gathering of wood storks anywhere in the United States.

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Things to Do at Corkscrew Swamp

Though much of Corkscrew Swamp is not open to the public, there are still lots of things to do at this nature preserve. The entire public-facing part of the sanctuary is filled with educational activities and exhibits designed to raise awareness about this unique ecosystem and part of Florida.

Blair Audubon Center

Corkscrew Preserve has a native garden, a shade house where a variety of plants grow, the Blair Audubon Center, and the 2.25 mile boardwalk. We briefly walked through the native garden before making our way into the visitor center.

I’m a huge proponent of using native plants as much as possible so I’m always thrilled to see native gardening showcased at local, state, and national parks. These native gardens are often kid-friendly and raise awareness of our native plants.

The Blair Center contains restrooms, a gift shop, admission desk, and a café. Displays about the ghost orchid, ecosystems found in the Sanctuary, and the park’s water flow and animals hang in the center.

A cool respite from the August heat, we enjoyed browsing the gift shop, talking with the staff, and a bit of a rest on the overstuffed chairs when we returned from the boardwalk. Though the café was closed that day, the space and tables remained available for families to use.

After checking in and picking up the Field Guide I purchased with our tickets, we pushed through the rear doors.

The back of the Blair Audubon Center features a full-length covered deck reminiscent of Old Florida homes. A long bench and three rocking chairs invite visitors to sit and relax, look out at the boardwalk and the pine flatwoods into which it disappears.

Camera around my neck, phones in hand, we stepped onto the boardwalk and into an amazing natural attraction of endless peace and unparalleled beauty.

The Boardwalk Through Corkscrew Swamp

The boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary starts in pine flatwoods and winds through wet prairie, cypress ponds, the bald cypress forest, and lettuce lakes. Several rain shelters offer places to rest out of the sun or rain.

The boardwalk was first constructed in 1955. These days, the Audubon Society uses a sustainably harvested Brazilian hardwood called Pau Lope for the boardwalk. This hardwood is naturally pest and rot resistant and requires no chemicals.

The Ecosystems Found Along the Boardwalk

The Pine flatwoods ecosystem is one of the most common ecosystems in Florida. Huge pine forests once covered large areas of the state – slash pines and cabbage palms standing tall, saw palmetto closer to the ground.

The sandy soil explodes in a riot of color – yellow, purple, pink, and orange. Many of the plants growing in the pine flatwoods need periodic fires to cure germination.

We crossed a wildlife crossing and soon found ourselves among a wet prairie. This ecosystem provides a transition between wet and dry areas. More marsh than prairie, the grasses which thrive here and the wide expanse with no trees still resembles a prairie.

To this point, the landscape looked familiar from my many other hiking trips around the state. I still photographed flowers because…pretty flowers. I pointed plants out to Nick who answered with the typical, “Mmm hmmm.”

By the time we crossed the prairie and came to the edge of the cypress forest, sweat streamed down my face. I eagerly stood off to the side in the shade of a couple of cypress trees, the temperature difference 10 degrees or so between sun and shade.

The cypress forest begins with the smaller pond cypress. The boardwalk briefly skirts the edge of the forest. It passes through a pond filled with alligator flag plants. The alligator flag grows in the deepest parts of the wetlands, places where alligators most likely frequent. Hence, the name.

From the pond, the boardwalk plunges into the shadows of the cypress forest. Here, the water beneath the boardwalk is shallow and clear enough to see fallen leaves and branches on the bottom. The sun reflects in dappled patches off the water. Cypress and maple trees spear towards the sky, their branches covered in airplants.

I took photos through here every few feet – the reflection of a cypress tree, an enormous air plant on the trunk of a tree, the natural curve of the boardwalk through the trees. With each step, with each photo, I scanned the trees for the ghost orchid. What I didn’t know at the time was that there’s a display at that spot on the boardwalk. It’s pretty hard to miss!

Periodically, the boardwalk intersects to reveal a short spur. Benches and decks at the ends of the spurs look over more prairie ecosystems.

We continued along the boardwalk, crossing from shade to sun back to shade, exploring the spurs and views found at their ends. As we moved from the edges of the cypress forest to spurs overlooking open land and back again, we joked about the sun and the humidity.

Both drain you of fluids faster than you realize. Breezes flowing over the marsh prairie felt good, but the sun(!), that blistering Florida sun. Back under the cypress canopy, sweat oozed. It didn’t pour, the humidity too thick for that. 

We dove deeper into the cypress forest leaving behind the purple pickerel weed and red swamp hibiscus that grow at the edge of the forest. The trees edged taller towards the sky, their canopies feathered against the blue. Flowers gave way to ferns.

At least 30 different species of ferns grow at the Sanctuary. Stumps of dead trees grew crowns of swamp ferns and strap ferns. Here, the water runs the deep brown of rich coffee.

Old-Growth Bald Cypress Forest

Beneath the enormous canopy, the shade deepened. As did the humidity. A “Landmark Cypress” sign told us we had entered the old-growth bald cypress forest. These wetlands are under water much of the year and are called a “river of trees”, the slow-moving water eventually emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.

A subcanopy of smaller trees includes pond apple and ash. Strangler figs grow around large cypress trees, appearing like suspenders, or even alien-like in some cases. This is where the ghost orchid grows, too, a spidery mass of roots high up on the trunks where sunlight still reaches it.

The Super Ghost Orchid

The ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) is a leafless ephiphyte meaning it has no leaves and needs no soil. Epiphytes use their roots to attach themselves to trees.

The vast root system of the ghost orchid photosynthesizes light similar in manner to leaves and collects water from the air and from rainfall. Though it lives attached to a tree, it’s not parasitic.

Roughly 2,000 plants exist in the wild in southwest Florida and Cuba. It’s considered endangered; to protect it, other locations of this species are not publicly known.

This particular orchid was discovered in 2007 and made headlines almost immediately. It’s called Super Ghost for its size – the largest known ghost orchid – and for its prolific flowering.

Most ghost orchids produce a single bloom at a time; this one produces multiple flowers. The most at once was 18 in 2014.

In 2019, a trail cam mounted on the cypress above the orchid captured the first images of a sphinx moth pollinating the orchid.

We only found the ghost orchid because Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary placed an interpretive display at that location on the boardwalk. It’s impossible to see without a long lens or binoculars. Prior to COVID-19, the Sanctuary provided a spotting scope at that location. Of course, this was the main purpose of our trip so we came prepared.

After looking at the photos on the display to determine where to point my camera, I set up the tripod, secured the 500mm lens to the camera body, found the orchid, focused, and snapped off a photo.

Not trusting that my eyes had focused correctly (because they don’t and that’s why I use auto-focus when I can), I enlisted Nick to snap off three more photos. When I got back home and looked at the photos, I felt immense relief that he had gone with me and had taken three photos. My photo was out of focus while his three were much sharper.

Tip: The orchid is east of the boardwalk. Photographing it in the afternoon will likely produce better photos. We had to contend with the sun peeking through the cypress canopy.

From there we moved along the rest of the boardwalk relatively quickly. Partly because a loud family of six was hot on our tail and partly because I seriously needed water. I stupidly ill-prepared for the humidity. Stupidly because I’ve lived here my entire life and know better than to hike with camera gear and no water in the middle of summer.

We passed through the rest of the old-growth forest, stopping to read about the other landmark sentry cypress giants. We walked out on one spur, stood in the shade at the edge of the deck looking at its open and sunny benches, “Nope. Looks hot,” and went back to the main boardwalk. At the Lettuce Lakes, we stopped to sit for a minute and enjoy the new landscape.

After what seemed an incredibly long time, we reached the wet prairie again and the final leg of the boardwalk. An older couple stood in the shade of the cypress trees, fingers to lips as we approached.

On the boardwalk crossing the prairie, two turkey vultures stood on the railing enjoying the sun. One opened its wings, gently flapping them back and forth. We all snapped photos.

I asked the couple if they were done taking photos, if we could cross. They chuckled nervously and said they had been waiting for the vultures to fly away; they didn’t want to become vulture food. 

I slowly approached, phone up filming their departure, talking to them. One flew to a nearby tree immediately. The other one walked and hopped along the railing for a bit before flying off to join its mate.

Back at the Blair Audubon Center, we talked to the staff for a bit, browsed the gift shop, and looked through the displays. We learned that there is at least one other ghost orchid at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary though the tree it grows on may have been knocked down during a storm.

Staff also told us there are several more orchid species at the Sanctuary, but they don’t point those out or bring any kind of attention to them so that they aren’t stolen.

FAQs: Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

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Closing: Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

We left our hunt for the ghost orchid at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary satisfied and tired, hungry for water and food as well as a return trip.

Like all great adventures, this one fueled a desire to do it again. Maybe in the afternoon next time. Maybe with a bigger lens. Definitely with lots of water.