Glossodia major

Glossodia major Wax-lip Orchid, Brisbane Ranges 4 October 2017

At this time of the year the Wax-lip Orchids are ubiquitous, seemingly flowering everywhere in the bush. I found this little group in the Brisbane Ranges today but they were scattered throughout the understory. After the first few minutes of delight I tend to ignore them because I'm looking for other plants or insects. I hardly ever photograph them but this is one I took several weeks ago.

Wax-lip Orchid, Brisbane Ranges 17 September 2017

But this one stopped me in my tracks. The white form is rarely seen.

Wax-lip, Brisbane Ranges 4 October 2017

Mary's flower?

There's a small perennial shrub, about 40cm high, that flowers in the Brisbane Ranges and in heathland near Geelong called Rhytidosporum procumbens White Marianth. I don't know the origin of the word 'marianth but several sources suggest it means 'Mary's flower'. procumbens means 'lying on the ground' and Rhytidosporum means 'wrinkled seed'.

In the past it has been called a Billardiera and Marianthus and a Pittosporum but in 1862 von Mueller, the Government Botanist in Victoria, transferred it to the genus Rhytidosporum, but it remains in the Pittosporaceae family.

White Marianth Rhytidosporum procumbens, Steiglitz, Victoria

The White Marianth thrives on poor soils of south-eastern Australia but can be easily overlooked and many people would be struggling to name it. The leaves are interesting because some, but not all, have three teeth on the apex.

Wattle Day

OK, I know I've missed the official Wattle Day by 'that much' but yesterday I was in the Brisbane Ranges National Park and the wattles were flowering in massed beauty everywhere.

Golden Wattle Acacia pycnantha

The most prolific is Acacia pycnantha Golden Wattle. It lined every road we travelled and is spread throughout the National Park. It's Australia's floral emblem.

Another common wattle is the Myrtle Wattle Acacia myrtifolia. It has a shorter habit than the Golden Wattle and are often growing beneath them. One of the easiest way to identify them is to look at the leaves to see if there is a gland on one edge. In the photo below you can see this in the leaf at bottom left. I have to admit I'm just a little bit biased against Myrtle Wattle just because they look untidy. I know. I'm working on it and may need to consult a therapist.

Acacia myrtifolia Myrtle Wattle

There is another wattle I'm ambivalent about. Acacia paradoxa Hedge Wattle is very pretty but it is also very spiky and it can be a bit weedy. Hence the common name 'hedge' I suspect.

Acacia paradoxa Hedge Wattle

Another wattle I found was the Ploughshare Wattle Acacia gunnii. This wattle is a low shrub with pale flowers and the leaves are a really interesting shape.

Acacia gunnii Ploughshare Wattle.

There are about 12 more species of wattles that have been recorded in the Brisbane Ranges. I'll have to go back for another look and try not to get distracted by orchids.

Some orchids in the Brisbane Ranges

We've been home a few days and today was the first chance I've had to go bush to see what is happening locally. 

First I went to the Bert Boardman Picnic Reserve at Steiglitz, because the walking track behind it is usually interesting, and then to near the intersection of Switch Road and Ballan Road. The wattles were looking spectacular, Acacia pycnantha in particular, and there were several other interesting plants that I'll post about later but of course the orchids were flowering and they do tend to hog the limelight.

Cyanicula (Caladenia) caerulea Blue Fingers

Pterostylis nana Dwarf Greenhood

Acianthus caudatus Mayfly Orchid

Nodding Greenhood Pterostylus nutans

Cyrtostylis reniformis Small Gnat Orchid

The Small Gnat Orchids and Mayfly Orchids were prolific but very hard to see. It's easier to look for the leaves and then the flowers.

I was very pleased to find one orchid in particular. I thought at first it was a Tall Greenhood but on closer inspection it was an Emerald-lip Greenhood. Apparently smaragdyna means emerald-lip in Ancient Greek and refers to the colour of the labellum.

Emerald-lip Greenhood Pterostylis smaragdyna

Anakie Gorge

Folded rocks in Anakie Gorge

To walk back in time you only need to walk a short distance from the Picnic Ground at Anakie Gorge.

The Brisbane Ranges plateau was once, about 500 million years ago, submerged under an inland sea and the layers of sediment deposited on the seabed eventually compacted into slate and sandstone. The area became exposed over the years and under pressure about a million years ago the land east of  the Rowsley Fault that extends from about Bacchus Marsh to Geelong began to sink (Port Phillip Sunkland). The result was an impressive escarpment. Rivers like Little River and StonyCreek eroded deep valleys through the escarpment as they moved down to what is now Port Phillip Bay. Today we can clearly see the layers of ancient rock in the Anakie Gorge formed by Stony Creek.

And, as a bonus, I can promise numbers of birds all year round and a wildflower display in spring.

Another cemetery visit

Four types of grevillea can be found in the Brisbane Ranges, some more readily than others. One is the endemic Grevillea steiglitziana Brisbane Ranges Grevillea. Another is the Golden Grevillea Grevillea chrysophaea and it can be found fairly easily in heathy woodland near the old gold-mining town of Steiglitz. I found it easily at the Steiglitz cemetery where it grows between the headstones and reaches a height of several metres. A New Holland Honeyeater was taking advantage of the nectar when I was there. The flowers are a stunning golden yellow.

This plant is endemic to Victoria and grows in the east of the state except for the population in the Brisbane Ranges. I've never gone looking for the other two types of grevillea - another thing to put on my 'to do' list.

PS This cemetery is a good spot for orchids too.

Bush-peas, Parrot-peas and the like

I mentioned in the last blog that the peas were flowering the Brisbane Ranges at the moment. OK, I found them, I photographed them .... then I tried to identify them. Oh dear. The Fabaceae family is so confusing.

These are some I found. I think they are, from top to bottom, Narrow-leaf Bitter-pea Daviesia leptophylla; Leafless Globe-pea Sphaerolobium minus; Golden Bush-pea Pultenaea gunnii; Dwarf Bush-pea Pultenaea humilis; Parrot-pea Dillwynia sp. I'm happy to be corrected.

Finally, a day in the bush

Some weeks I just can't get out into the bush, and I begin to feel starved, and it feels worse if it happens in spring. I've been indoors for a fortnight and was getting desperate.

But today was the annual wildflower show put on by the Friends of the Brisbane Ranges, the weather was perfect and I was unencumbered by duties and tasks (if you don't count housework) so off I went. The displays were excellent and the food provided by the Anakie school parents tasty. There were some organised lectures and bus tours that were heavily booked - I gave those a miss this year and explored some favourite spots by myself. The Brisbane Ranges is a fantastic place to visit at any time of the year but spring is best and today there was colour everywhere. Most of the ranges were burnt badly several years ago so it was interesting to see the plants recovering in the burnt areas and compare with those in the unburnt patches.

The Bert Boardman Reserve at Steiglitz is a great spot for lunch and today I walked the tracks behind the reserve. There were a few orchids flowering there, including some delightful patches of Rabbit-ears Thelymitra antennifera. And I found one Small Spider-orchid Caladenia parva. It really is small. The one I found was about 5 cm tall. There were also lots of peas and daisies flowering, but that's another story.

Brisbane Ranges

It was bleak and windy but we went out to the Brisbane Ranges anyway. We hardly saw or heard a bird, the majority of plants weren't flowering yet and the coffee shop at Steiglitz had closed by the time we got there but we had fun in spite of all of that. This area has suffered from several hot bushfires in the last few years and the bush is still recovering. Sutherlands Creek, at the old gold-mining village of Steiglitz, had water in it and I haven't seen that for a while.

We had a good time wandering the bush tracks, and I got a few nice photos. There were Blue Fingers orchids flowering in a few spots, Cyanicula caerulea, and the Prickly Crytandra Cryptandra tomentosa was flowering as well. The wattles were looking spectacular.

A good spot to put down roots

After the fire the stony ground was bare, even twelve months later, on Buckshot Track in the Brisbane Ranges. There is almost no soil between the buckshot - small ironstone gravel - and after a long and hot summer it's very dry and exposed. But this little seedling has found a haven. It's growing in the shelter and small amount of humus in the burnt lepidosperma clump and looks like it may survive to grow into a tree. It's a Black Wattle Acacia mearnsii.

Cemetery visit

There was a time when the only, apart from the obvious, reason I went into a cemetery was for family history research. I've spent a lot of time in cemeteries, checking out the headstones and burial places of my ancestors, transcribing headstones for databases, leading guided cemetery walks.
My fellow genealogists laughed at me when I occasionally took my binoculars to country cemeteries to observe interesting birds, but I never really noticed what was underfoot until after I became aware of the plant world (as opposed to the bird world). Then it gradually dawned on me that country cemeteries are often little remnants of what the vegetation used to be like in a particular district. They haven't been ploughed and planted with crops of grasses, they are usually far bigger than necessary for their designated business, they are slashed occasionally and that suits the Australian herbs and grasses. Neglect has been the perfect management tool. Now when I visit a cemetery I am more often there to look at the vegetation than for any other purpose.
Today I went to the Anakie Wildflower Show, a good display of the huge range of plants that grow in the Brisbane Ranges north-east of Geelong. With time to spare I, and many other visitors, decided to check out some of the wildflowers on tracks and roadsides. Almost the whole of the Brisbane Ranges has been burnt in the last couple of summers but the wildflowers have responded well. Many of the peas were flowering, as well as daisies, lomandras, orchids, bluebells – the bush was putting on a show.

Then I went to the Steiglitz Cemetery. The fires missed this area and it has always been worth a visit. Today I found the lovely Golden Grevillea Grevillea chrysophaea flowering, Flying Duck Orchids, the pink-flowering Heath Teatree (growing along the ground because of the slashing), Many-flowered Mat-rush Lomandra multiflora, Tiny Drosera Drosera pygmaea, Bent Goodenia Goodenia geniculata and the white flowers of Blunt Everlastings Argentipallium obtusifolium.