An Afternoon Orchid Hunt


Leopard Orchid (Diuris pardina)

Last night, looking at suggested activities around the area which were on the information in my Airbnb, and looking at the walks book for this area which is on the bookshelf, the suggestion of a walk on the local heath which is a biodiversity hotspot, including for orchids, had great appeal.

A quick look at iNaturalist to determine where I might have the best luck in finding orchids gave me a relatively small area with a few tracks to explore. 

Finding my first orchid within 100 m of where I had parked the car bode well for the location. It was a fairly scrappy Diuris, but I photographed it anyway then realised it was a case of 'but wait, there's more', lots more! 

Leopard Orchid (Diuris pardina)

 I was walking very slowly and looking very carefully and while I couldn't see any more orchids for a while, they were quite a lot of other native wild flowers around. As I've walked back from Misty peak, I found a small patch of tiny green hoods. I was pleased with that because I had said that somebody else had found that species in the area very recently.

Dwarf Greenhood (Pterostylis nana)


I walked a little further without seeing any more different species of Orchid but then I heard a call from 50 to 100 m away and noted an elderly gentleman and a lady who was bent over looking at things on the ground. I did call out to say that it sounded as if he'd found something exciting, to which his response was not really but he did say what had found and I walked around about to look and they were happy to point out where they had found a wax lip orchid 

Waxlip Orchid (Glossodia major)

I continued walking and found quite a few leaves of other orchids. Probably four or five more species, and flower spikes, probably of mosquito orchids that had finished, and a sun orchid that had a bud and the seed pod from last season.

I was nearing the road and the couple I'd spoken to previously stopped their car and the lady got out to show me where she had found a tall green hood 
She also described to me where they had found what she named a bluebeard.

I had no idea what it was, she gave me instructions for finding the location. It wasn't easy and I walked past it before giving up and turning around to go back to my accommodation when I came across it on the return trip.

I came across some leaf rosettes and buds of presumably another green hood but I'm not sure which.

Pterostylis sp, I recon

And of course, there were the other lovely wildflowers

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