Roger Hammer: Orchids and other Wildflowers of the Fakahatchee Swamp

Roger L. Hammer

Roger Hammer is an award-winning professional naturalist and a survivalist instructor for the Discovery Channel’s reality TV show Naked and Afraid. He was the manager of the 120-acre Castellow Hammock Nature Center for the Miami-Dade County Parks Department for 30 years, retiring in 2010. He received the first Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award presented by the Florida Native Plant Society in 1982, Tropical Audubon Society honored him with the Charles Brookfield Medal in 1996, in 2003 he received the Green Palmetto Award in Education from the Florida Native Plant Society, and in 2019 he received the Florida Native Plant Society Mentor Award. Roger has given keynote speeches at Florida Native Plant Society state conferences as well as the 1984 and 2008 World Orchid Conferences held in Miami. He was also the opening speaker at the American Orchid Society’s 100-year anniversary celebration held at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami in 2021. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Florida International University.

Roger’s first passion with the flora of Florida was finding and photographing Florida’s native orchids, and during his travels he discovered two species of native orchids in Florida not previously known to occur in the state. In 1979 he discovered a population of atala butterflies, listed in 1965 as presumed extinct.

He is the author of Everglades Wildflowers, Florida Keys Wildflowers, Central Florida Wildflowers, Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers, Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies in Tropical Florida, Exploring Everglades National Park, Paddling Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, and Florida Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Sunshine State. He lives in Homestead, Florida with his wife, Michelle.

Roger will Have his books for purchase at the meeting.