Day off from orchids yesterday to do doctor visits. Today I went to check the orchid sites on my walking route. It has been at least a week and there were a few plants showing buds last time. My house is not very far from one of the arms of the National Park that reaches up into the suburbs as it follows the length of Lovers Jump Creek. The walk is a mix of rain forest and dry scherophyl forest (eucalyptus and banksia and casuarina). The walk starts about 200 metres (600 feet above sea level) and drops maybe 100 metres (300 feet) to the creek bed and climbs back out twice. It is a great place to walk filled with the sounds of birds and the scurrying of lizards and the occasional human sound from the houses on the hilltop.
I spotted a new site along this track - photo is taken back along the track in the direction I was coming from - saw the distinctive long stem of an orchid plant and the flash of burgundy.
There were several plants in this colony though I only managed to get one decent photograph in focus. It was mixed light and that is hard for photos.
Cow Orchid (Cryptostylis Subulata). Photo works for me - zoom in and see how much is in focus. I then walked down to the creek bed and up out the other side to my oft visited site. The cow orchids are flowering in abundance here now. I had thought there may be two different varieties here but they are all the same.
I found a new orchid site a little further up the hill. The distinctive shape of a leaf on the ground caught my eye - hidden in the thickish grass. There are several leaves in this picture and two stems. Now it looks like the flower has not developed fully. This is happening quite a lot this season, my friend Jan tells me.
One plant is opening out upwards
and the other is opening downwards
It is hard to identify the plant without seeing the full flower. I am going to guess at some form of Greenhood or Maroonhood. Good news is there is still one bud in formation - I can come back in a day or two and have a look.
Now I posted pictures a little while back of a purplish stem growing on the side of the track. I found it - the top bud has broken off. The ones lower down may open. The plant a little further up the hill gives a clue what may have happened. Got too hot, dried out and top bud fell off. Here is the evidence
Then a little further up the track I spotted this one. A long stem of about 7 or 8 inches and a single bud on top. I cannot see any leaf because there is a lot of leaf litter on the ground. This too looks less than happy - got spots on which suggests some form of infection. Now this is a variety I have not seen before but I cannot identify without the flower opening.
I did get to see the first bonnet orchids flowering here in a few locations.
Bonnet orchid (Cryptostylis Erecta) will be flowering from now right through until March. Look forward to a few more photos. I did see another cow orchid flowering in a site I had not spotted before. I saw one well off the track. I stopped to take photos (out of focus again) and then saw a few more. On the other side of the track I spied a long purple stem against a tree. It has a bud on - I do not know if it is an orchid but I have a feeling it is as there are no leaves on the stem. The bud is just forming.
And back again on the other side of the track (i.e., in the same area) I spied this little fellow. It has a few leaves flat on the ground and a long stem with no leaves and a single bud. I wonder what it is. I do not think it is an orchid as there are too many leaves on the ground.
What I like is the leaves are the size of a penny (US) and the stem is a little over 1 inch tall (say 4 cms). It pays to stop and look - even though I had seen cow orchids in two other locations already.
And the walk out of the National Park back into suburbia yielded another surprise - a single red flower on a long stem.
It is an orchid (count the flower parts - 3 sepals, 3 petals and a column - in this one the column and the labellum are somewhat integrated) - I suspect a tropical orchid that may not be native to these parts. The red frilled labellum is something to behold
Note: Photos taken with Canon PowerShot G16 on November 26, 2016