This is the main sign letting you know you are entering Devils Fork State Park. It is located next to Lake Jocassee in Oconee County, South Carolina.

The park is most famous for the rare plant commonly called Oconee Bells. Its botanical name is Shortia galacifolia.

However, I spend a lot more time looking for Pygmy Pipes than Oconee Bells, since they are much harder to find.

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The way to find these strange plants is to follow your nose... Pygmy Pipes emit a strong clove fragrance. Often, you can detect the fragrance from as much as twenty feet away from the plants. As you get closer to the plants, the fragrance becomes much stronger.

The plants are usually covered with leaves, so you have to carefully brush away the leaves so that you can photograph them. I learned this "sniff" method a few years ago from a friend who had been finding Pygmy Pipes on a regular basis in the spring.

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Here is the Pygmy Pipes group fully exposed. This is a rather large group -- generally, you find them in much smaller groupings of just a few stems.

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The color of the flowers of Pygmy Pipes varies from a deep magenta to a bluish purple - even in the same group. The tip of the petals will always be a lighter color - usually white.

Each flower is covered with a tan sheath. This sheath is the color of the surrounding leaf litter which makes the plants very difficult to spot.

Tags:   Devils Fork State Park Oconee County South Carolina Monotropsis odorata Sweet Pine Sap clove fragrance flower Olympus E-510 Zuiko 14-54mm Olympus 2X teleconverter Pygmy Pipes ZD

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The color of the flowers of Pigmy Pipes varies from a deep magenta to a bluish purple - even in the same group. The tip of the petals will always be a lighter color - usually white.

Each flower is covered with a tan sheath. This sheath is the color of the surrounding leaf litter which makes the plants very difficult to spot.

Tags:   Devils Fork State Park Oconee County South Carolina Monotropsis odorata Sweet Pine Sap clove fragrance flower Olympus E-510 Sigma 105mm Olympus 2X teleconverter Pygmy Pipes

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