No McClouds for ANPS at Mcleods NR

Working on the principle that where there are lots of Spring orchids there might also be lots of Autumn orchids ANPS went to McLeods Nature Reserve near Gundaroo today.  The weather was entirely sunny and after a cool start very pleasant.  The first image shows more or less the course we followed.
Crossing the erosion gully (see below) was a bit of a physical challenge.  But first we had a mental challenge.  What was being protetced in these enclosures?  As far as we could see it was just tree guards!
Possibly the NPS could put more effort into removing the junk from the erosion gullies - surely the scrap metal is saleable.
 The erosion gully itself is quite scenic in a badlands sort of way.
 Yes indeedy there were quite a lot of orchids around.  In some cases they were just "evidence of orchids".
In others they were clearly floral material, but these look as though they have been fertilised.  I strongly suspect they are Corunastylis cornuta.  Several colonies were found scattered over the Reserve.


Since first drafting this post Roger Farrow has sent me an image of another specimen with much more crowded flowers.
Possibly this was another species within the genus.  However after circulating the images to a local group of orchid experts I have agreed that it isn't possible to do better than Corunastylis sp. for both specimens.

 Little Dumpies (Diplodium truncata) were also found in many places - the first being found when a member squeaked about the leaves she'd found, not realising that a flower was about 50cm away!

The biggest colony we found had >20 flowers.  Some of them are evident in this image, marked with a red tag.
Towards the end of the walk this Speculantha rubescens was flopped on to a track.  Clearly a Speculantha with inwards facing flowers.  The shape of the sinus defines it to species, and the time of flowering is also a big hint.
 Getting to the dicotyledons the most obvious flowers early were Goodenia hederacea
A bud of Hibbertia obtusifolia.
Oxalis exilis.
Rather early for Melichrus urseolatus, but the Autumn rain has caused many things to get a bit out of synch, and it was only an isolated flower.
Acacia genistifolia!
Grevillea juniperina
G. lanigera: for some reason I didn't take a snap of the more developed flowers we found later.
Sporangia on a moss.  Pretty but I have no idea of moss taxonomy
Coral fimgus
An unknown fungus, demonstrating the utility of my truck mirror!
Ditto.
The fungus s Phlebotus marginatus, certainly the species with the largest fruiting bodies of any fungus in Australia.  It is a bolete - soft pored fungus - rather than having the gills of the agarics.  The hat was there for scale.


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