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...