Chasing Ghosts

High in the canopy above the deep swamps of south Florida, the elusive and endangered ghost orchid clings to the trunks of cypress trees. With its delicate, curling tendrils and a nectar tube over a foot long, experts had always assumed the rare giant sphinx moth, with its super-long tongue, was the perfectly adapted insect to pollinate the flower. Over three summers, a team of ecologists and conservation photographers brave the waist-deep, gator-infested water of the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to capture the photo that puts a long-held theory of evolution to the test.

Colorado Premiere