Thanks to a little article with no pictures in the AAA-Living magazine (May/June 2019) I've set a challenge for myself to photograph the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid this summer. I'm guessing that this may be a challenge even our resident plant photographer Roy Kelley may have not meet... yet.

There are two things that make photographing this plant a challenge. (1) It appears in a very limited area (as far as I know, only off the beaten trail in a remote part of ND. (2) It only blooms for a two to three week period around the 4th of July.

I had not heard of this wild flower before BUT we usually camp in that area at that time so I'm taking this as a personal challenge for me to hunt down the flower and shoot it with my best camera this summer.

There are so many good anologise that could be made/associated with this plant such as taking advantage of a window of opportunity, a rare and indangered species, blooming where you are planted, and on and on. I hope you can find motovation for yourself knowing a little about this beautiful, endangered, plants story.

This is also a very rare flower... only because it's in my back yard. This bloom is about the size of a silver dollar. I'm not sure what the scoop is with this flower as I have a few of them right next to the house and I suspect that they just never completely die off due to the heat from the house. I don't think it's a perennial plant but I could be wrong.