South Coast Orchids - at Winter Solstice

On Sunday I went with Alan Stephenson and a small group of members of the Australasian Native Orchid Society to search for Orchids in the Nowra area. Alan had already been out to locate plants worth while showing to us, but these things are so small, that one has to "find them" every time - even if you know they are within 5 metres of you.

I was very pleased to find this particular plant of Acianthus fornicatus.
The dorsal sepal is quite broad, and hooded. The flowers are nearly transparent, which as you can see makes them hard to photograph, for all the reflections the flower surface generates.

Here is the closely related plant - Acianthus exsertus. Its stem is purplish, and the flowers have more red than the previous species. More significantly, the flower has a narrower shape. The dorsal sepal is held more upright
(though this does vary with the stage of development of the flower).
The column on this species is much more exposed
(As you can see above, A. fornicatus has the column nearly covered by the hooded dorsal sepal).Here is a familiar Greenhood - the Cobra Greenhood
Diplodium grandiflorum.
This is a lovely flower which I always enjoy seeing.In contrast with the Greenhood above, which is relatively tall, these next group are "Helmet Orchids" - tiny ground-hugging plants.
Corybas aconitiflorus.
The flowers are completely "hooded" over, with their opening approachable only from the underside. These plants are pollinated by fungus gnats (tiny flies), which tend to hang out low down (where the fungi grow).Here is a colony of these plants.
There is great variation in the amount of red amongst these flowers.
Here is a related plant - another "Helmet Orchid".
This species holds its flower much more open to the air.
It also has a fringe around the opening in the flower.
It is these differences which separate the Corysanthes from the Corybas genus (under the new classifications).
This plant is now called Corysanthes pruinosa