Another look at Shoalhaven Orchids - 31 August 2013

My friend Beth Boughton was invited to do a tour with Alan Stephenson and I, so she could see the Orchids she had heard about from me, and seen on my Blog.

Dockrillia pugioniformis
Dagger Orchid
Cambewarra Mtn

Dockrillia teretifolia
(These leaves are meant to be hanging down vertically)
please turn your head 90 degrees to the left.

Glossodia major
as seen at Myola Road, Myola.

Glossodia minor
A pure white form,
plus a regular coloured form

Not an Orchid.
A chance sighting and quick photo
of a Painted Button Quail
at Depot Road, Nowra

This was a surprise
when I looked closely at the photo
Petalochilus catenatus
Coonemia Creek.
I had assumed it was just a very pale form
of Petalochilus carneaBut it is too pure, too perfect.
Alan Stephenson has confirmed the ID as
"catenatus".

Petalochilus hillmanii

A nice pair of
Prasophyllum brevilabre

Pterostylis baptistii
A fine specimen of this handsome
King Greenhood.
Coonemia Creek

Pterostylis erecta colony
Barrengarry Mountain

Pterostylis erecta
Macquarie Pass,
1 September 2013

Pterostylis hildae
Macquarie Pass
1 September 2013

Speculantha vernalis
Depot Road, Nowra
31 August 2013
This is a spring flowering variant
of a group of tiny Greenhoods which
otherwise flower in summer.
Critically endangered and EPBC listed.

Sun Orchid
Thelymitra of indeterminate species
Probably Thelymitra ixioides variant.

Sarcochilus falcatus
Cambewarra Mtn.

Orchids from Nowra and Cambewarra Mountain

This morning I rang Alan Stephenson to check on the weather in Nowra.
We have had such cold, windy weather in Robbo that I was very uncertain that it was going to be worthwhile making the trip down to the Shoalhaven. But Alan assured me it was warm and sunny,

I am glad I went, for I found a number of interesting Orchids.

Hymenochilus bicolor
Formerly Pterostylis bicolor
Growing in Nowra Cemetery

Prasophyllum elatum
These plants on Leebold Hill
have green leaves and
black flower stems.
The buds are just visible,
They come out creamy colour.

Pterostylis erecta

Speculantha vernalis
This spring flowered species
of Speculantha
is distinct from the regular
summer and autumn flowered species.
Alan Stephenson has persuaded
the Federal Authorities
to list it as Critically Endangered
because it is so highly localised.

The epiphytic form of the
Sydney Rock Orchid
it grows so high in trees on
Cambewarra Mountain
that it is very hard
for me to photograph.
You can just make out
the long flower sprays.
Thelychiton epiphyticus

Dockrillia pugioniformis

Petalochilus alatus
Fairy Caladenia
This tiny Caladenia
is very sweet, but hard to find
and harder to photograph properly.

 An unusual magenta colour form of Glossodia minor
beside a regular colour form on right

Glossodia minor

Quiet times inside the Robertson Nature Reserve

Yesterday afternoon I took a half-hour (or so) to capture some images within the Robertson Nature Reserve, as the light was favourable.

Lovely shafts of bright light penetrate the dense Rainforest Canopy, in places, and then might illuminate just one feature, such as a clump of moss growing on a vine, heading up through the trees. 

Moss on Vine stem, illuminated by a shaft of light

When a single shaft of light illuminates an otherwise seemingly insignificant feature on Nature, like this, you can then realise how beautiful the entire Reserve is, IF ONLY WE COULD ALL LEARN TO APPRECIATE ITS FEATURES.

Entrance to the Robertson Nature Reserve

One of the useful explanatory signs

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first report of
the Tangle Orchid, (Plectorrhiza tridentata) growing in the Robertson Nature Reserve,
although it is reported elsewhere in the district.
It is classed as a "Twig Epiphyte"
usually growing on small branches or low to medium shrubs.

Defying Gravity?
Here you can see it hanging from its roots
which have grown into the bark of the tree above.
These flimsy attachments are in fact quite sturdy

and their flexibility gives them surprising resilience.

Defying Gravity?
Tangle-root Orchid (Plectorrhiza tridentata)

Open ground, covered with ferns.

Young vines scrambling up towards the light

The dark brown, fibrous Tree Fern trunk, embedded in the trunk of the Possumwood is all that remains to reveal the origins of the Possumwood. 

A Tree Fern trunk once formed a "seed bed" for a seedling of a Possumwood.

Quintinia sieberi
The Possumwood roots then grew down to the ground and having arrived at a rich nutrient source, then grow strong, and eventually took over and out-competed the Tree Fern.

The Possumwood bark is distinctively knobbly and is a blue-green colour.
That distinctive colour comes from algae which like to grow on certain rainforest tree trunks.

Dark brown trunk of a dead Tree Fern
reveals the origins of the Possumwood Tree.

Another epiphytic Orchid, Dockrillia pugioniformis
Dagger Orchid (named for the shape of the leaves)

Kangaroo Ferns growing up along
a leaning trunk of a tree.

A colony of small Fungi growing out of
a moss-covered log, on the ground.

Even small trees like this can have hollows
which are habitat for native animals.
One evening I came face to face with
a "Bush Rat" inside this hollow tree trunk.