For this week’s photography challenge, Diane of the Rambling Ranger is “talking about Mother Nature untouched and untrammeled, allowed to get on with her work without human help or hindrance.” Now that’s a real challenge, especially here in Florida where evidence of human help or hindrance is in overwhelming abundance. But Diane further notes that, “Even if your only access to the natural world is the local park, you will certainly find something wild in your world.” Okay, well, I do have some parks and forests around, and human help that I just can’t help but show.

In early April, my husband and I drove to a segment of the Apalachicola National Forest, expecting to find a field of pitcher plants, or more correctly, a Savannah wetland of pitcher plants. What we found instead were charred remains.

Above is my husband on the search for bugs and pitcher plants.

What we didn’t know was that the U.S. Forest Service had conducted a prescribed burn in the area back in late February. Prescribed burns are necessary to reduce the risk of wildfires and to maintain a unique ecosystem such as the Savannah wetland. Even though we were disappointed, I found good subjects to photograph.

Life on the rebound, especially among the pines.

Above are remnants of a hunting party, or maybe just a party. I actually did some trash pick-up while we were out, although I didn’t have enough bags to pick up this assortment of burned-out bottles. But see the green shoots … nothing can keep Mother Nature down for long.

A few weeks later, we returned.

What a difference six weeks can make! We were thrilled to find green everywhere and pitcher plants in abundance!

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Pitcher plants are carnivorous, needing to get their nutrients from the insects that crawl into the pitcher part of the plant where they drown and are slowly digested. (It takes all kinds.) You can learn more about them here.

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Flowers were everywhere as well, such as these tiny orchids (above).

This last (but not least) flower, I call “Jill’s Flower” because I think of her whenever I see a pretty combination of purple and yellow. (Y’all know I mean Jill Weatherholt.)

So, this is as wild as I get, folks. Given my achy-breaky knees, it was hard enough to squat down to get close and personal with the orchids, and then get back up.

I hope you enjoyed this walk on Marie’s wild side and will visit other photographers participating in this challenge.

If you care to join in, please remember to use the Lens-Artist tag and link to Diane’s original post (here). And heads up, next week’s challenge will be hosted by Patti and the “rules” are as follows: “From Large to Small. Here are the details: Pick a color and take several photos that feature that color.  Start with a photo of a big subject in that color (for example, a wall) and move all the way down to a small subject in that same color (for example, an earring).“

Until then, stay safe, healthy, and happy!