ANPS does Tinderry NR

I'll start by echoing Ros's thanks to Roger and Christine for the garden tour, coffee and cakes after the walk.  Good wishes to them for their Northern expedition.

We were indeed lucky with the weather.  Before leaving home it seemed cold and windy, but I, like most people, shed a layer during the day.  While it did look a tad ominous towards the end ...

 ... no precipitation occurred.

Getting on to the plants seen, I will begin with the orchids, or evidence thereof, seen.  This was a surprisingly good haul, although the designation "sp." is very appropriate.  The first plant spotted was Corunastylis sp. I didn't keep count of the number of colonies, let alone plants, seen but they were widely distributed throughout the area.

 A clear specimen of Speculantha sp. was found in a 'gone over ' condition.  The timing of flowering given in The Book suggests that S. rubescens is the more likely of the two local species, but given the weirdness of this season that is insufficient evidence to become specific.

Noting the rosette at the base of the stem, we were fairly confident that another much larger colony of rosettes had been seen a little earlier.

On the subject of weird seasons, neither of the local species of Bunochilus should be flowering until at least September.  Perhaps this one is planning to stay in bud for the next 4 months?  Again, quite a few colonies were found after the first puzzling specimen.  (It was also very hard to photograph - if you think this image is naff you should see the others I took.)

We also saw quite a few Thelymitra leaves suggesting this could be a useful venue for an orchid hunt in Spring-Summer.

 A very few flowering beans were encountered.  This was identified pro tem as Dillwynnia retorta ssp phylicoides, but further research suggest that a split should be recognised so it is simply D. phylicoides

Acacia genistifolia (also a member of the Fabaceae and thus technically a bean, although it doesn't look like one) was strutting its stuff as the first member of the genus to flower.  In places a magnificent display was evident.

The only heath found flowering was Melicrus urceolatus. This one was inhabited by an ant, which was apparently a former ant.

A few Hibbertia obtusifolia was flowering.

Quite a few plants of Comesperma ericinum were spotted, but this was th e only one I noticed that was really close to flowering.

Another bean!  Bossiaea buxifolia.

This very tall Callitris endlicheri was indeed a surprise.  I normally think of these as being in the 3 -5m height range rather than about 10m achieved by this one.

The furrowed bark was heavily laden with this waxy deposit.

Back at ground level a Drosera sp. suggested the gully in which we had lunch was basically damp.

There was quite a lot of fungus around and more work is needed to attach names to them.

Quite a few of the Eucalyptus rossii were heavily scribbled.

T(his spider ant (Leptomyrmex erythrocephalus) was busy replenishing its larder with a honey bee.

A bug on a Choretrum pauciflorum.

Finally a view from the patio at Tilembeya.