The pink lady’s slipper orchid can live 100 years, but it’s a difficult life. The plants rely on soil fungi to crack open the seeds and send nutrients to the seedlings. Once germinated, it can be 10-17 years before the first flower blooms; after that, they don’t bloom annually, but produce seeds only four or five times in their lives.
Martha Ture attended the Corcoran Gallery school in Washington, D.C., and Cornell University in the School of Fine Arts. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and at the University of California at Berkeley. Her practice is primarily in nature and wildlife photography, with forays into concert photography, altered reality, historic and street photography. Her aim is to explore what the world presents to her.