Moss Covered Cypress Knees

Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message

Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.

​There is no solitude like sitting in a dark cove within the Okefenokee Swamp. The dark water of the Suwannee River travels swiftly causing swirling eddies behind the stumps of cypress logged generations ago. Thick fetterbush and Tupelo form a tunnel overhead. Beams of dappled sunlight peak through the vegetation to illuminate the swamp details: dark shadows under cypress buttresses… brilliantly deep green mosses upon their knees… Bartram's airplant clinging to stems and trunks… whirligig beetles skimming the blackwater surface. Silence. Solitude. Swamp. 

Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.

Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.

Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.