Okefenokee Prairies: Like Nowhere Else in the World

Excerpt from Francis Harper’s Mammals of the Okefinokee Swamp, published March 1927:

The prairies contribute more than any other feature to the unique charm of the Okefinokee. The watery vistas between moss-hung prairie heads have an especially appealing beauty; and probably nowhere else in the world can their counterpart be found. There are acres of water lilies, both white and yellow; widespreading ranks of yellow ‘hardhead’ (Xyris); thick green beds of ‘maiden cane’ (Panicum), sheltering myriads of marvelous diving grasshoppers; purple flowers of bladderwort rising daintily from floating masses of mosslike leaves; blue-flowered ‘wampee’ (Pontederia), forming a border about every lake and gator-hole; lustrous green leaf-blades of ‘never-wets’ (Orontium) in thick array; ferns (Anchistea) springing up everywhere through green beds of sphagnum; and a host of other plants, such as floating heart (Limnanthemum), water shield (Brasenia), water penny-wort (Hydrocotyle), ‘St. Mary’s-wort’ (Triadenum), pitcher-plant (Sarracenia), arrowhead (Sagittaria), and sundew (Drosera).