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

Eneabba orchids

Arowsmith Spider Orchid, in a wire cage to protect it from kangaroos.

A banded Greenhood

Blue Fairy orchid

Blue Fairy orchid

Donkey Orchid

Donkey Orchid

Snail Greenhood

Snail Greenhood

Green-combs

One of the orchids we found at Anglesea on Sunday was Caladenia tentaculata, the Mantis Orchid (or Large Green-comb). There were quite a few, tucked away in the heath, looking very beautiful.

But there were two that have me confused. I can't decide what they are. The combs of C. tentaculata extend above the tip of the anther whereas those of the one below are quite short. The bottom photo may just be a Mantis Orchid past its prime, but the one immediately below is different. It could be C. phaeoclavia or C. dilatata. And I've just noticed the lack of wings on the column of the flower above. Now I'm really confused. Maybe it is C. dilatata. I think I'll take up a different hobby :(

Birds of a different kind

Yesterday we wandered at field nats' pace through trees on the property east of Anglesea so I don't think we missed much. We saw quite a few species of orchid including a big patch of the Common Bird Orchid Chiloglottis valida. They're called 'bird' orchids' because the flowers look like young birds opening their beaks. 'Valida' means strong, and they certainly are a robust looking orchid, especially the leaves. We saw the paired leaves first - they can be up to 10 cm long - and then hunted for the flowers. There were a few fully open. This genus of orchid spreads vegetatively, producing clones of itself from tubers, so you often find it in large numbers in one area. (It also produces seed but very little of it germinates.) It's pollinated by sexually-deceived male wasps apparently. I'd like to see that.

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.

Natural gardens

A week's holiday, seven days to explore our bush block near Heywood. Sounds like heaven doesn't it? Well, it rained! A lot. I haven't seen mud for a while, and I'd forgotten how, well, muddy it is. And I managed to get the little ATV bogged as well, and they're hard to bog.
So in effect I had a day and a half of lovely weather to search for fungi (more on those later) and other goodies, and then I was inside next to the lovely fire sewing, reading, drinking coffee, watching TV, adding tags to my photos so I can find them - so relaxing and welcome but not what I'd planned.
This little moss garden was growing on top of a stump. Fungi, moss, lichen and possibly a hornwort all growing in their own tiny ecosystem. Nature is truly marvellous. It's not very many weeks ago that this bit of bush was so parched and crackly you'd think it impossible that such a thing was possible. Just add water.

The only orchid I found flowering was the Nodding Greenhood, a common species but beautiful all the same. The leaves of a number of other species were evident, and if I was there next week the Tall Greenhoods would be flowering. I think the Tall Greenhoods are being split so I'm not sure which one grows in our bush. The only other plant flowering was the Epacris impressa.

Parson's bands

You'd think that an orchid with pure white petals would stand out from the crowd wouldn't you. But not necessarily so.

Yesterday I went looking for autumn orchids (and whatever else was around) in the open, heathy forest behind Anglsea. It's not the sort of heath there that you have trouble walking through but rather more open, with lots of bare spaces and leaf litter. I followed kangaroo tracks, and at one stage was under close scrutiny by two kangaroos. (You know how they stop and prop with their chests puffed out and their heads turned your way, almost invisible amongst the trees despite their proximity?)

After about ten minutes I got my eye in, which means I could actually see what I was looking for, and started to see the minutiae on the forest floor. Including the little white orchid that goes by the glorious name of Parson's Bands Eriochilus cucullatus. The reason for the common name is obvious, the two white sepals looking like the collar of a parson. It's also called the Leafless Parson's Bands, because the leaf develops after flowering, but the ones I saw each had a tiny oval-shaped leaf hugging the ground. Despite the white sepals these little orchids are quite difficult to see, but well worth looking for.

Birds of a different kind

Braving the traffic on the Great Ocean Road I took myself off to see what was happening in the Anglesea heath - one of my favorite places. I wandered along paths at Point Addis that I had to myself because everyone else was at the beach, searched for insects in the foliage, listened to the birds, enjoyed the sunshine.

As I got back to my car another car pulled up. "I thought it was you" said Polly, who was showing her friend from New South Wales the Rufous Bristlebird on the point. "Have you seen the duck orchids?" No, I hadn't and wasn't even looking for orchids thinking it was a bit late in the season.

So off to the orchid patch we went, an area that has been mined for sand in the past and now regrowing. If Polly hadn't shown me I would never have seen these little beauties tucked away in the undergrowth. Beats me how anyone found them in the first place. There were two types of Duck Orchids there, the Large Duck Orchid Caleana major and the Small Duck Orchid Paracaleana minor. Both are uncommon in this area. The slightest touch will trigger the labellum to spring down against the column - and this is what it does when a male wasp responds to the 'female-wasp' scent emitted by the orchid.

Luckily I was able to get several photos before my camera battery went flat and I discovered that I'd forgotten to charge my spare battery!! The first photo is the Large Duck Orchid and the other two are the Small Duck Orchid.

Touring the coast

Last weekend I was a tourist - in my own patch. Four of us explored some of the Otway National Park, the Great Ocean Road near Port Campbell and the volcanic landscape at Camperdown and Colac. The weather was calm, warm and sunny, we saw lots of tourists, we saw some beautiful farming country, ferny gullies, tall forests and spectacular landscapes. We were in one of the most popular tourist destinations in Australia.

But it was only at The Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard and London Bridge that we really felt like we were in a crowd. There are lots of places that are not visited by the bulk of the tourists and in a number of spots we were the only people there.

One of the quiet places was Moonlight Head, and it was in the nearby cemetery that we found the Twisted Sun Orchid Thelymitra flexuosa. It's reluctant to flower, even on warm days, but we were lucky to find it open. There were a lot of heath plants coming up to flower and flowering in the mown sections of the cemetery and it's well worth a visit. And so is Moonlight Head as well -it's one of the highest cliffs on the coastline.

Another sun orchid was flowering at London Bridge. Metallic Sun Orchid Thelymitra epipactoides was growing next to a path and I stopped to take its photo - and discovered that someone had broken it off and it was just propped up in the surrounding foliage. At that stage I didn't know what it was, so I decided to take it with me back to the car where I had a reference book - and felt decidedly guilty as we passed groups of tourists and National Park staff disguised as tourists. I had to hide it under my shirt! Me, in court, "No way! I didn't pick it - it was just lying there. Really." Anyway, it turned out to be an Endangered species. Which made it even worse than I'd imagined. It is a very beautiful orchid that grows on the exposed cliff tops in Port Campbell National Park.

And just for a change of scene, this was my lunch on Sunday. A delightful Fetta Salad, eaten in the garden at the Timboon Farmhouse Cheese. It looked too good to eat but was delicious. We bought a jar of the fetta so we could relive the taste at home.

Grassy woodland survey

A group of us turned up at the private property at Bannockburn, set to survey a selected area of grassy woodland. And survey it we did. It took all day. Some of us walked the area to see what was growing there, some sampled the water in the creek for saltiness and oxygen levels and dipped the water for its invertebrates, some checked the insect pitfall traps, the mammal traps were checked, we looked and listened for the birds. There were some friendly and interesting discussions during rest breaks about identification of particular species.
It was a hot day and the vegetation showed the effect of many dry years but we saw many different plants flowering, including the nationally vulnerable Clover Glycine Glycine latrobeana. Several orchid species were flowering well - the Tiger Orchid Diuris sulphurea looked very handsome and the Sun-orchids were fully open in the sunshine. (Its exact identity wasn't clear but I think we decided it was the Plain Sun-orchid Thelymitra nuda or a near relative.)

A report will be given to the owners and the Catchment Management Authority, and results will be published in the Field Naturalists Club magazine. And the survey group will move on to investigate another private property in the near future. I'm already looking forward to it.
The aim is to build up the bank of knowledge about particular vegetation types on the volcanic plains. It's fun to do, and a terrific way for a novice to learn from the experts.