Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve in the Summer

[Lan Shen]

This first time I saw the Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve was in August.  Although it was a typical upper Gulf Coast summer day, I was extremely happy to brave the heat and humidity, for a field of Liatris pycnostachya was in bloom and the breath-takingly beautiful flowers were swarming with butterflies: many of them showy swallowtails such as the black swallow tail, the palemedes, giant swallowtail, tiger swallowtail....  My second summer visit came in July, when the rare Chapman Orchid was blooming.  For those who say that now is too hot and humid for the ourdoors, you are missing many of our most beautiful wildflowers.