East Gippsland in winter

With a bit of time to spare over the last week, Ali and I headed down the coast again - this time south, to east Gippsland, Victoria. We travelled down from Canberra, passing through Cooma and Bombala before hitting the Victorian border. After a spot of lunch, we decided to do a few quick stops along the highway down to Cann River. The road runs through a valley, passing through fairly remote National Park (Coopracambra NP) as well as more pastoral areas when you get closer to Cann River.

The decision to stop turned out to be a great one - after a bit of searching, we found several Acianthus pusillus, mostly past it but a few still flowering. A little more searching yielded some Corysanthes fimbriata (I've seen a lot of this species in the past month or two!) and finally, something more interesting - a greenhood!

Diplodium longipetalum

At first I wasn't sure what it was - it reminded me of a smaller, daintier version of D. revolutum, with a shorter hood and a long pointed labellum. After a bit of research, turns out they are Diplodium longipetalum. From what I can gather they are a fairly uncommon species, restricted to central and south-east NSW and far eastern VIC. Also in the general vicinity were budding Diplodium grandiflorums and Bunochilus sp. Feeling rather chuffed, we headed down through Cann River and set up camp at Wingan Inlet in Croajingolong. 

A few words on Wingan Inlet - it is a beautiful, secluded campsite. However, beware the long drive in from the highway and the resident kookaburras who are keen to steal lunch from unsuspecting campers!

The second day was spent mostly around the campsite. However to our dismay we could find very few orchids! Very few of the tracks along the road in to the Inlet had orchids - I suspect the ground was a little wet and the vegetation a little thick. Thankfully, the walk from the campsite to the beach was better. Here we found several nice colonies of Diplodium grandiflorum and Corysanthes fimbriata, with one lone flowering Pterostylis nutans. 

Horizontally growing Diplodium grandiflorum

The following day we headed back out to the Coopracambra NP area. On one particular slope we found had hundreds of leaves, mostly spring orchids I guess. Little was flowering until we finally stumbled across a flowering Bunochilus! I initially thought it was Bunochilus tunstallii, a species I was hoping to see on this trip. However, when we saw B. tunstallii later in the trip, we realised this was definitely different - the flowers were bigger, longer, the labellum larger with more whitish hairs at the base. My photos seem to match ones on the retiredaussies.com site which are labelled B. chlorogrammus. Most other photos of chlorogrammus on the internet show a green labellum but everything else seems to fit, so I shall call it chlorogrammus. We even found a second flower!
UPDATE: I was contacted by Gary Backhouse who informs me that this a separate species to B. chlorogrammus. It is currently undescribed, and is being called Bunochilus sp 'Red Lip'. It seems to be restricted to eastern Victoria and is apparently uncommon/rare. My sighting, at about 300m elevation, represents the highest known record for this species. 

Bunochilus sp 'Red Lip'

Bunochilus sp 'Red Lip' - front on

Bunochilus sp 'Red Lip' - second plant

We also found a large colony of wasp orchids, with one lone Chiloglottis reflexa flower:

Late-flowering Chiloglottis reflexa

This seems to be rather late for C. reflexa to be out flowering, and interestingly we saw no evidence of any finished flowers despite the large number of leaves. 

That night, we decided to move camp, so in the morning we packed up and headed to Shipwreck Creek. This campsite is still part of Croajingolong NP but is further east than we were before and close to Mallacoota. 

As seems to be our custom, we stopped a few times to check the surrounding bush on our drive from Wingan Inlet to Mallacoota. As luck would have it, we hit the jackpot in national park not all that far from Mallacoota. In one particular gully, there were about 500 flowering orchids! The majority of these (over 300) were Diplodium grandiflorums in roughly two loose-ish colonies. There were also well over 100 Bunochilus tunstallii dispersed throughout the gully, along with maybe 30-50 Pterostylis nutans, the odd Acianthus pusillus and one or two Pterostylis acuminata.

Diplodium grandiflorum

Diplodium grandiflorum (I can see 17 flowering/budding in this photo alone)

I found it hard to capture the large numbers of greenhoods in a single photograph, as they were dispersed amongst the bushes.

Bunochilus tunstallii

B. tunstallii

B. tunstallii whole plant

B. tunstallii two plants

B. tunstallii backlit

B. tunstallii

As you can see, I took a lot of photos! What intrigued me was the variety in labellum shape and colour - I can only assume that all I saw were B. tunstallii but there was everything in colour from dark reddish to pale-ish with a dark central stripe to greenish, as illustrated below:

Bunochilus tunstallii labellum variation

On our last day, we spent more time around the Mallacoota area, exploring some of the great bush there is to be found in that part of the world. We found more Bunochilus tunstallii, one B. sp 'Red Lip' (conveniently located right next to a tunstallii for comparison) and more of the usual suspects.

Bunochilus sp 'Red Lip'

Nicely positioned flowers on this Acianthus pusillus

And that was more or less all she wrote. We returned to Canberra the following day. What a great area though! I must return in spring...

The Cobra Greenhood

I just had to save my photos of the Cobra Greenhood, Diplodium grandiflorum, for a separate post - partially because the previous post was just getting a bit long, but mainly because they are just so...magnificent! Handsome. Beautiful. Striking.
Here is a few shots of the whole flowering plant:

Diplodium grandiflorum - tall plant

Diplodium grandiflorum - short plant

Diplodium grandiflorum - second plant, wideangle view

You can see the first one is significantly taller than the second. I didn't take any photos with a scale, but some plants were taller than my knee. The stem is covered in leaves, fairly evenly spaced up the stem. As in nearly all Diplodium species, the flowering stem stands separate from the non-flowering plants which instead form rosettes on the ground. 

Next, a closer shot of the flower:

Diplodium grandiflorum - side on

You can see the labellum protruding within the hood in this photo - the thin orange-ish 'thing' (for want of a better word) sticking up from the green and white cup-like 'thing' (well, the flower). 

Here is a front-on shot:

Diplodium grandiflorum - front on

Here you can see the diagnostic brown, flared edges to the hood, which gives it the common name of Cobra Greenhood. Certainly quite distinctive. Interestingly, this photo was taken in low light without flash and if you look closely you can see some very red elements in the brown part of the hood. I wonder why? I checked on the flower itself and certainly couldn't see any such colouration with my own eyes. Must be an artifact of the colour range of the sensor (?). This wasn't present in similar photos WITH flash. 

Diplodium grandiflorum - rear

This photo, taken from the rear, was my favourite from my session with these guys - I love the way it highlights the flared nature of the brown edges of the hood, and the divergent 'free points' which form a V with the flower as the base. 

They are truly remarkable orchids, and a reminder of why I called this blog 'The Greenhood'...

South Coast in winter

 Earlier this week my girlfriend and I took off to the south coast in search for winter flowering orchids. Figuring that it was still the long weekend here in Canberra, we headed to Meroo NP, just south of Ulladulla, where we were confident we could find a free campsite. The campsite itself is great - in winter you're camping right beside Acianthus fornicatus and Corybas aconitiflorus, and in summer you're next to Cryptostylis erecta and Dipodium variegatum instead!
However, we hadn't banked on the rain. Well, we had, and even gone so far as to bring the tarp and poles but completely forgot the pegs! Useless! Luckily for us it didn't rain too much in the evenings so we didn't have to cook in the wet...
On Monday morning we tried to dodge showers and set off for a wander not too far from our campsite. Walking through coastal heathy forest, just behind the sand dunes, we found hundreds - no - thousands of Acianthus leaves. They were everywhere. But not much else. As far as I could tell they were all Acianthus fornicatus.

Acianthus fornicatus - reddish plant

Processing the above photo (taken at f13) made me realise just how much dust I have on my sensor! I should really get it cleaned. Or clean it myself (now there's a scary thought!).

Acianthus fornicatus - backlit

I never find Acianthus particularly easy flowers to photograph - so small, well spaced, facing different ways, high level of detail required etc. One way is to look for different angles I guess! I actually quite like the reflections (?) of the lens aperture here in the backlit photo...

Not having found much in the way of orchids, we decided to head up to Burrill Lake where we knew of a colony of Corybas undulatus that we had found last year, also in early June. After a little searching we found lots! Definitely a more impressive display than last year I think. We probably found in excess of 60 flowering plants, although we weren't really counting. As far as I can see, this is definitely towards the southern limit of this species. The Atlas of Living Australia only has one old (1973) record from further south than Burrill Lake, the rest are all north of the Jervis Bay/Nowra area. 

Two Corybas undulatus

Corybas undulatus

They're so small! These photos make them look giant, but they are actually tiny...

Corybas undulatus

Returning back to Meroo, we found some promising leaves for spring time, along with a sole Pterostylis nutans flowering and the ever present Acianthus fornicatus and Corybas aconitiflorus...

Pterostylis nutans - note the water droplet!

The next morning, Tuesday, we set off early for Seven Mile Beach NP, north of Nowra. It was raining, but luckily cleared up by the time we had navigated a road crash and the Nowra traffic. Orchids here, along a sandy track just behind the dunes, were everywhere - Corysanthes fimbriata, Taurantha concinna, Bunochilus longifolius, Diplodium grandiflorum, Petalochilus pictus and the abundant Acianthus fornicatus. Here are photos of some of them...

Taurantha concinna

Corysanthes fimbriata

Bunochilus longifolius

Taurantha (sp aff ?) concinna - seems to match a similarly labelled orchid on the Retired Aussies site. 

On the Wednesday we headed home, via Bungonia. First we stopped off at some nice bush along the Turpentine Road (Jervis Bay end), where we added Pterostylis acuminata to our tally. At Bungonia, I wanted to check out some orchids I had seen budding a fortnight earlier. Fortunately, they didn't let down - just. We found one each (flowering) of Corysanthes fimbriata (I assume) and Taurantha concinna (again, I assume). According to the Atlas of Living Australia, these records are somewhat more inland and at higher elevations than previously recorded for both species. The Corysanthes doesn't seem to be fully open, but I can only assume it is C. fimbriata. 

Corysanthes fimbriata at Bungonia

Taurantha concinna at Bungonia

And that was it! I was even back in Canberra in time to hear a certain John Young talk about what is probably the most notable Australian ornithological find in a century or more - his discovery of the Night Parrot. 

I think I'll leave my photos of D. grandiflorum for another post...

Locals flowering

Over the past couple of months, we have been experiencing a very warm autumn. Initially we had a cold snap at the beginning of autumn, but this was then followed by an extended period of warm weather. Very mild. I think this might have affected some orchids, as there are already Pterostylis nutans flowering on Black Mountain! I found this individual today (even though it is not quite fully developed yet, its pretty close!). Usually they don't start flowering in earnest until late winter.
I've also found numerous buds of Bunochilus, but it remains to be seen whether or not they will flower before spring.

Pterostylis nutans flowering early

In the afternoon, I went to check out a colony of Acianthus collinus on Black Mountain that I had first discovered last year. Although they were clearly Acianthus, with their distinctive, heart-shaped leaves, they were past their best flowering and so I had resolved to wait until the following season. By coincidence, I ran into Tony who was also after the A collinus. After Tony had left, I wandered a bit further before I discovered yet another A collinus colony! Prior to this season there had been 3 known colonies on Black Mountain, but I now know of at least 4 and I'm assured by Tony there are several others in addition.

Acianthus collinus

Our native orchids

We have some really fabulous orchids in Australia. We really do. In particular, our range of native terrestrials is quite impressive. Such a wide range of quirky shapes and unusual patterns and colours! I've set up this blog to document some of these orchids, as I find them in the wild.
Below are a few examples of some of the orchids around SE Australia.

Arachnorchis atrovespa

Cryptostylis hunteriana

Dipodium variegatum

Spiranthes alticola

Pterostylis curta

Diplodium laxum

Diuris dendrobioides

Caleana minor