New Years Day 2014

Well, firstly let me wish all readers a Happy New Year and a great 2014 to come.

The rainfall figures (by month) for 2013 were:
January 196; February 270; March 124.5; April 159.25; May 106; June 428;
Then it seemed as if the world had forgotten how to rain in Robertson.
July 17; August 1.5; September 189; October 10.2; November 202; December 60.5.
That gave us a total annual rainfall of 1763.95 mm.
That is a very close result compared to the official Bureau's Weather Station which recorded 1777.4 mm

This is the Bureau's Plot for 2014 and all years.
It shows 2014 and median and mean records.

You do not need me to tell you that 2013 was both very uneven in the spread of rainfall, and that June was a spectacularly wet month. More significantly, as far as the local plants are concerned, late winter was very, very dry,

As a result, the late-winter flowering Greenhoods had a fabulous season, and the spring-flowering Orchids performed very poorly. The early summer Orchids, Dipodium and Cryptostylis, are flowering reasonably well at present.

Waterfall Orchids in full flower now.

This late summer season (if that's what it can be called) is looking like a good season, (if somewhat compressed in flowering time).  Other local Orchid enthusiasts confirm this impression. Nothing happening two weeks ago, and suddenly there is a "rush" of flowering.

Waterfall Greenhood (Diplodium pulchellum)

After a very dry season through until the end of January, followed by torrential rain, then another dry spell, followed by yet another torrential dump of rain, the summer Orchids now have to rush to get their flowers opened, pollinated, and their seed capsules ripened, while the warm weather lasts.

Waterfall Greenhood (Diplodium pulchellum)

Today, my friend Kirsten and I inspected the "Waterfall Greenhoods" (Diplodium pulchellum) at one of the local Waterfalls. There is one in particular plant which has a terrific flower, and easy to access.

Kisten photographing the Waterfall Orchid up close

The others closer to the river are also going off.

And lots of non-flowering rosettes are evident, which bodes well for this colony for next year too.

Rosettes (leaves of non-flowering plants)
bodes well for next year, too.

Gibbosas in flower now.

This morning I met up with Tony Rodgers, to show him some of the "Gibbosas" at Albion Park. Silly me, I parked in a slightly different place to normal, and spend 15 minutes wandering about before I found the right spot. That is good, for it means the chance of people finding these Orchids on a random basis is not very high. Lets keep it that way.

Judging by various comments and feedback about "lost sunglasses found at Kurnell" etc, it seems many people know where those other rare and localised Orchids are. Who knows when "many" is too many?

A nice flowering stem
of Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

I find these unusual "Greenhoods" fascinating.
The thick, fleshy labellum protrudes on a hinge.
They can snap shut if disturbed, by an insect
or a clumsy photographer.
Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

This plant has the"lateral sepals" deflexed
even more than normal.
Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

A lovely specimen
found away from the main colony.
Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

Close-up of the Labellum
of Oligochaetochilus gibbosus
Note the two stiff fibrous hairs

 The even better news is that we found a number of individual specimens of these Orchids away from the main colony. 

Leaf rosettes of Oligochaetochilus gibbosus
These non-flowering plants are already going brown.

An Orchid Weekend - Saturday - part two

Further to yesterday's post, having left Mt Gibraltar (a.k.a."The Gib"), the abrupt mountain above Bowral we lunched at Lake Alexandra, Mittagong. Then we went walking, led by Christine, a Mittagong local and ANOS Illawarra member. She knows this area well.

We walked along a series of trails at the base of Mt. Alexandra Reserve. We stayed low down, near the creek, and did not attempt to go high on the Mountain (in my case, for reasons of energy conservation) and because there was plenty for us to see at low levels of the Reserve.

Acianthus exsertus - a pale (greenish) form
A much paler form than the ones seen on The Gib

An interesting Beetle with a purplish tinge
Possibly related to this Brown Leaf-rolling Weevil

An orange capped gilled fungus.(name unknown to me)
Peter, from Germany, tells me
" this is a fungus of the genus Russula.
The species identification is not easy.
The most important feature is the color of spore dust."

 

Orange capped fungus (above)
turned over to show gills

Chiloglottis seminuda - typical two leaves of this genus.
This species has the glands (pseudo-insect)
on the upper half of the labellum only.

Pterostylis hispidula

Pterostylis acuminata

A cluster of Fungi

The same Fungi turned over to reveal the brownish gills

A Bullant which fancied "taking me on".
I backed off.

A largish silvery Fungus with brownish gills
I would normally regard this as a likely "edible mushroom"
except that the habitat is not where one would expect it.
As usual, if in doubt, do not eat it.
We made no attempt to collect this specimen.

A Dusky Moorhen in Lake Alexandra

Eurasian Coot standing near the edge of Lake Alexandra.

Schools of Prawns - on top of the Shoalhaven Escarpment

I went bush with Alan Stephenson on Sunday.

He wanted to check on a Corunastylis he had seen in an earlier year, about which there was some confusion of identity. We did not find any of those particular plants, so that mystery remains. However, we did find lots of other plants of interest. Today I shall start a series of reports.

We went initially to the top of the Shoalhaven Escarpment (on Main Road 92) - above Sassafras, on the way towards Nerriga. We stopped at the highest point of this range, before the road descends to the Endrick River. That place is 780 metres above sea level - the highest point on that road.

We went there looking for the rare Corunastylis superba. Alan and I had examined this known site - looking for these Orchids - on 2 February 2012, and there was no sign of these plants - no leaves visible at all (and yes, we did know where to look). On Sunday, we found four plants - one had finished and set some seeds already, and one was just finishing flowering (see attached image).

Corunastylis superba
just finishing flowering

It is interesting that these plants had grown, and finished flowering in the six weeks between our visits. There were also several other plants with leaves recognisable as Corunastylis plants.

On the way to that site, we had called in to another area of exposed sandstone rock-shelves which is known to be good for Orchids.

As soon as we arrived at the rock-shelves, I spotted some "Little Dumpies" (Diplodium truncatum).

(Diplodium truncatum)

Almost immediately, we then found ourselves amongst some of the gorgeous little Greenhoods known as "Prawn Orchids" (Crangonorchis pedoglossa). This particular plant was a stand-out with the extremely fine point to the "dorsal sepal".

Such a long tip on
the Prawn Orchid

We later called in to another place where these Prawn Orchids are also known to occur, and much to our delight, they were obviously having a great season (the rainfall has been pretty remarkable, as you may well be aware). The moss beds over the rock shelves were totally soaked, and water was leaking out freely from these moss beds.

As these Prawn Orchids are small plants, photographed in a colony, from a distance (to allow me to get them all in the one photographic frame) you will need to click to enlarge the following images to make much sense of them.

I had never seen such a group of
Prawn Orchids.

A veritable "School of Prawns"
or a School of Prawn Orchids,

if you are pedantic.

And no sooner had we discovered
the first big colony,
than we found an even bigger and better colony.

These are tiny little plants, but such a great colony is remarkable.
There were over 30 plants in frame and even more close by.
And they were also growing out in the open (not under the low shrubbery as per normal).

Local endangered Greenhoods having good year.

Down along the one of the local creeks the Beautiful Greenhood (Diplodium pulchellum) is just starting to flower.
EDIT: I have corrected the previously published references to this plant as the "Illawarra Greenhood". Kirsten has pointed out that name is applied to Pterostylis gibbosa. There is another more suitable name, the Waterfall Greenhood, but as I have demonstrated previously, they don't always live beside waterfalls.
Re the use of Pterostylis vs Diplodium, I stick by my choice to follow the "new names" (for Orchids generally) and especially with the Greenhoods, because that term covers such a vast assortment of forms of plants, whereas Bunochilus or Diplodium gives the naturalist a clue as to the form of the plant, and when in the field, what to look for.

I found one mature flower, 

3 new flowers just opening, 

and several buds.

Beautiful Greenhood (Diplodium pulchellum)
a fine mature flower

Beautiful Greenhood (Diplodium pulchellum)
New flower developing

Beautiful Greenhood (Diplodium pulchellum)

Rosette of Beautiful Greenhood
(Diplodium pulchellum)

Given the "vulnerable" status of this plant,
it is very gratifying that I also found 

many, many rosettes
of young non-flowering plants.

Lovely fresh rosettes of Beautiful Greenhood
(Diplodium pulchellum)

Lots of new rosettes of Beautiful Greenhood
(Diplodium pulchellum)

The mature flower of Beautiful Greenhood
(Diplodium pulchellum)

This plant is listed as "Vulnerable" under the NSW Threatened Species Legislation. mostly because of its restricted range and a preference for a very limited habits in which it likes to grow.

I especially like it as it is a Robertson local.

I love this plant to bits. 

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Elsewhere, in the same creek valley

 the lovely green ("Alba") form 

of Chiloglottis sylvestris is in flower.

Alba form of Chiloglottis sylvestris

Alba form of Chiloglottis sylvestris

This species is on its southern most limit of its range here near Robertson.

An early flowering for Pterostylis x ingens

Down on Tourist Road this afternoon I was surprised to find Pterostylis x ingens in flower. It is regarded by the experts as a naturally occurring hybrid Greenhood Orchid.

Pterostylis x ingens - a natural hybrid Greenhood

This variety of Greenhood is known to occur there. But it has only been seen by me in early November 2007 and late November 2009. 

Side view of Pterostylis  x ingens

Are they flowering very early this year? 

Who knows?

Once again, I can only say that you only find these things in flower IF AND WHEN YOU LOOK FOR THEM. 

Obviously, that only holds true IF they are actually flowering at the time. 

A front-on view of Pterostylis x ingens

 But the point is that a negative record means little or nothing. 

To say I have not seen them flowering this early before could simply mean that I have not looked this early in previous years.

Pterostylis x ingens - a young flower

Incidentally, this hybrid is said to be a cross between Pterostylis nutans (the Nodding Greenhood) and Pterostylis falcata.  
Pt. falcata has been found in 2009 growing close to where these plants are now flowering. Nutans has not been found in this vicinity previously, but it is generally so common that nobody ever queried that as a possible "parent". Well I can say now that today I found two small plants of Pt. nutans growing out in the short grass in a fully open are, along the edge of Tourist Road. A surprising location, but not really a surprise, if you get my point.

Spring Is coming in a rush, in the "bush".

This post will primarily be about Orchids, but let me just say that the "bush" is coming alive in the Illawarra and Southern Highlands. And it looks great!

Wattles are in flower everywhere, lining the roads and tracks, and the Pea flowers are climbing, scrambling or in the case of the shrubby ones, just standing up and flowering their little heads off.

But amongst these shrubs, the spring-flowering Orchids are just coming into flower too.

Just down my local hill, below Macquarie Pass, at Albion Park, the rare and endangered Illawarra Greenhood - better known simply as "gibbosas", have started to flower. 

The name Oligochaetochilus gibbosus amounts to the unpronounceable in search of the "bent over". 

Gibbous means humpbacked. The other part of the name, refers to its few spiky hairs on the labellum.

It is listed under the EPBC Act as Endangered, because of its limited distribution.

Here is the flower seen from the side
It is demonstrating its "gibbous" posture.

Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

And from the front, with the labellum "set"

Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

The EPBC Act recovery plan for this species includes this Pterostylis gibbosa drawing by A. W. Dockrill (reproduced from The Orchardian Volume 12, Number 3, March 1997 with the permission of the Editor)

">Botanical drawing of this species by AW Dockrill

In the same area, is found a cousin of that first species, Hymenochilus bicolor

It is a Midget Greenhood which has been renamed. In common parlance it is called the Black-tip Greenhood, in reference to its labellum. 

Black-tip Greenhood Hymenochilus bicolor

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In the same area I found the first of the regular spring "Caladenias"

This is Petalochilus carneus, best known as "Pink Fingers"

Petalochilus carneus

 There is often considerable variation between different flowers.

Pink Fingers Orchid  Petalochilus carneus

There will be many more of these "Spring Orchids" over the next few days. 

Time and space are running out on me.

Thirlmere Lakes visit yesterday

The Thirlmere Lakes are looking worse than ever. We found some Japanese visitors wandering around in the bush, presumably looking for the Lakes.

But Kirsten and I were looking for Orchids and we found lots of them.
We were barely in the gate on Slades Road when we spotted out first colonies of them. I had Acianthus (just about finished) and Pterostylis nutans on my side of the road, and Kirsten was getting excited about a really good colony of the tiny Trim Greenhoods (Taurantha concinna) on her side of the road. 


We saw hundreds of the Trim Greenhoods along the roadside, especially down beyond the 4th dry lake.


The Wattles were spectacular, the birds were singing, and it was a good day to be out and about.

Hardenbergia violacea

Trim Greenhoods were very common along the road
which runs the full length

of the Thirlmere Lakes National Park.

Trim Greenhood (Taurantha concinna) from rear.

Trim Greenhood - note the forked labellum. (Click to enlarge)

Grevillea arenaria subsp. arenaria (as best as I can work out)

Nodding Greenhood (Pterostylis nutans)

Gompholobium grandiflorum

Pixie Caps (a few still in flower) - Acianthus fornicatus

A roadside scene - Wattles lining the track

Sydney Blue Gum in Blue Gum Creek

 Strange but beautiful growth on a leaf of a native plant.

Deformed growth on leaf. Possibly "galls"? Very pretty, though