Photo of the Week: Endangered Flower

This week's photo comes from Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the Duke Campus in North Carolina. The above image is of the plant Thalictrum cooleyi, or Cooley's Meadow Rue, a now endangered species native to the wet bogs and savannahs of North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. This is a rare species of flowering plant in the buttercup family, endangered by habitat destruction and, oddly enough, human-maintained fire suppression. The plant requires sunlight and open spaces - a habitat usually maintained by occasional natural wildfires in the savannah, for example.

I love the translucent lining around the leaves!

Please contact Paige Brown and visit my photography website if you are interested in purchasing this image.