Helmet Orchids on their way to Canberra

Corybas aconitiflorus ?
Just a brief report, tonight.

I have sent a few Orchids to the Australian National Herbarium in CSIRO, in Canberra. David Jones asked me to collect some specimens for him to examine, which I have done.

Dark purplish ones. Different from most of the group.


Protruding "labellum"
under the hood.
It is the protrusion of the "labellum" underneath the hood which has attracted David Jones's interest.







Pale specimens,
typical of most of them









Group growing
amongst the leaf litter.
Click to see these Orchids more clearly.

These plants were growing tightly together, in several "colonies". As a result of the way in which they are growing, I decided to look around to find a few from several different groups, just to ensure I had not accidentally collected "clones" from a single genetic stock. The impression I had was that they might all be growing as "clones", spreading from underground stolons.