ANPS goes to Dalton and sees many orchids

The orchids seen on today's trip were stunning.  It is the first time I can ever remember passing on photographing Thelymitra (Sun orchids) because there were so many of them.  I hope any orchid experts reading this offer any corrections they see as necessary.

To begin in the cemetery.  Amidst the death (OK you expect that in a cemetery) and destruction there were 3 species of orchids. Here are:

Oligochaetochilus aciculiformis
Stegostyla cuccullata
I didn't see the donkey orchid here, but Roger Farrow did and has provided (thanks Roger) this image of Diuris semilunulata.

Once out on the roads the first orchids was soon found.  The flowers are small and the base of the leaf and stem were reddish so I call it Thelymitra pauciflora.
Bees also find them interesting!
I am not sure the 'pinkness' of this flower comes out in the images.  On the roadside this was very obvious.  The colour of the column led me to believe it was Thelymitra arenaria.

In TSR 30 there were many examples of T. pauciflora.  In some places 5 or 6 plants were growing within a square metre.
There were also many white "not-Caladenias", some growing quite tall.  I decided these were  Stegostyla moschata: the musky scent was quite obvious to a number of observers.

I initially decided these much larger (2x the size of T. pauciflora) sun orchids were Thelymitra megacalyptra.  However the petals and sepals overlap somewhat so I have revised that guess to Thelymitra nuda.

A particular delight were the many pink Thelys.  I suggest these are Thelymitra rubra as the stem was straight rather than the zig-zagged form of T, carnea

At last a tiny greenhood.  The t-shaped basal appendage to the labellum makes it Hymenochilus cycnocephalus.
There were many many donkey orchids in flower and even more still emerging.  All those I looked at were Diuris sulphurea.
Peter also found a Microtis sp. just about to burst in flower.  Unfortunately I didn't check the image and thus didn't realise it was so far out of focus it was nearly coming back into focus.

Link to General plant post
Link to town visit post

Comments

Ian Fraser said…
What a glorious feast of orchids - thank you! And I'm very jealous of the native bee photo too; still not got a good sharp pic of orchid pollination. Wish I could cancel about 6 commitments and whiz up there!
25 October 2012 at 20:23:00 GMT+11
Flabmeister said…
Thanks Ian.

I draw to your attention a comment from Adelaide Aussie Rules football, of more general application: "you can beat class, but you can't beat arse".

For non-Australian readers, the gluteal reference, in this context, means 'luck'.
26 October 2012 at 06:46:00 GMT+11
Denis Wilson said…
Lovely Orchids, Martin.
Especially of the Hymenochilus cycnocephalus.
28
I am jealous!

Denis
31 October 2012 at 18:18:00 GMT+11
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