Karen Relish was spending a Sunday with friends, slogging through a swamp in eastern Collier County, when she spotted it. An orchid species, not reported in the United States since 1905, was growing on the top of a moss-covered log floating in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. "She called over and said, 'Mike, you might want to take a look at this,' " said park biologist Mike Owen. Starting this month, orchid lovers don't even have to get their feet wet to catch their own glimpses. Cranichis muscosa, more commonly known as the "moss-loving orchid," is taking center stage at an exhibit of works by photographer Rick Cruz this month at a Cuban restaurant in Miami Beach. Cruz, 36, has embarked on a project to put all of the park's 43 threatened and endangered plant species on film. Make that 44. Relish has been trekking through the Fakahatchee for 10 years and has learned to take notice when she sees something she has never seen before. That's what happened that day in January 2004. "I happened to be looking down at the right time at the right place," said Relish, 41, who was working for Owen at the time as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Owen collected a specimen for identification, sensing that they had found something special. When Owen and Relish, now a science intern at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, caught up with their fellow swamp walkers later that day on Janes Scenic Drive, one of them recognized the find as the thought-to-be-lost orchid species. A quick check of an orchid identification book that one of the walkers had with him confirmed the discovery. "It was lost for 99 years but was out there the whole time in the Fakahatchee," Owen said this week. The discovery recalls scientists' announcement this spring that they had found an ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought extinct, flying through an Arkansas forest. Off the Southern California coast, a plant ecologist has found a species of grass, not seen since 1912, growing on Santa Catalina Island. The moss-loving orchid is between 4 and 10 inches tall when it is blooming. The flowers are white with green speckles. Records show that the first known specimen was collected in May 1903 in Lee County, which back then included the Fakahatchee. In December of that year, another specimen was reported in Dade County. Dade County also was the site of the 1905 report, records show. That day in the Fakahatchee, Owen and Relish identified some 40 of the orchids in the area of the floating log. The discovery reminded Owen of another part of the swamp where, in 1999, he had puzzled over a plant's identity. In February 2005, Owen returned to that site and found more than 150 moss-loving orchids growing over a 5-acre area, he said. It was on that expedition that Cruz took the picture of the orchid that will be on display at David's Cafe II, 1645 Meridian Ave., Miami Beach, through June 27. Cruz said the experience was "so incredible." "As they all say out there, 'That was a touchdown,'" Cruz said. By ERIC STAATS, emstaats@naplesnews.com June 4, 2005