Sometimes I feel like Christopher Columbus

We all know the story that Columbus had to persuade his crew that they were not about to fall off the edge of the world. It might be a myth, but that doesn't matter, for my purposes, tonight.

My yard, and down to Belmore Falls.
Beyond that - "There be Dragons"

 This is the view I have had for nearly three days, gazing out over the Kangaroo Valley, towards the southern end of the mighty Shoalhaven Valley.

It looks for all intents and purposes as if the world stops beyond Belmore Falls, the edge of the escarpment below Robertson. 

A closer view - showing "the edge of the world"

I know that Kangaroo Valley and the
 Shoalhaven Valley (all the way to Sassafras)
  is there - but can I see it?

Nope.
There is just a wall of cloud and nothing beyond.

Hence my Christopher Columbus fantasy.

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).

A School of Prawn Orchids

What better to term to describe what we found today on a rocky hillside near Sassafras, than a "School of Prawn Orchids"?

Prawn Orchids (Crangonorchis pedoglossa). 

You can see the origins of the name here. 

Crangonorchis pedoglossa - The Prawn Orchid.

It is in fact this species is an extreme form
of Greenhood Orchid.
Formerly known as Pterostylis pedoglossa.
The dorsal sepal is extended as a "nose",
(technically called a "filiform point")
and the two tips of the lateral sepals 
are also filiform.
They are usually erect, but some are reflexed.

 Here is the botanical illustration from PlantNET,

which shows pretty clearly the structure of the flower, 

just as you see it in the photo.

By way of preamble to this story I should say that the "we" refers to myself, Alan Stephenson and, for the first time, my Blogging colleague Martin Butterfield and his wife Frances. And a very pleasant day was had by all. The visit came about because I wanted to go to Sassafras to see these Prawn Orchids, which I first saw this time two years ago. And as Sassafras is about equidistant from Robertson and Bungendore, I asked Martin if he wished to join us. EDIT: Martin's write up of the trip is here.

These tiny Greenhoods are actually hard to find (at first). They were growing on a steep hillside, on shallow soil, mostly growing between and under low-growing heath sub-shrubs, or jammed in beside rocks.

Habitat shots courtesy of Alan Stephenson

Fortunately, I am not in any compromising positions

in these images, for I had been 
"inching along" these ledges,
and lying semi-prone across the bare rock faces,

while photographing the tiny Orchids.

They live amongst the small shrubs, 
just above each ledge.

Each ledge is about waist height, 
But it is on far too steep an angle
for safe walking.

But the flat section below each ledge
(where one walks)

is covered with loose ironstone pebbles

and large chips of flaked rock.
There is very little stable foothold.

Habitat A - looking north

 Habitat B - looking south (from just below the same ledge)

Once you get to where the Orchids are likely to be growing, and once recognise what you are looking for, you will realise, suddenly, there are lots of them around and about.

Here are two Prawn Orchids 

seemingly bowing to eachother.

Is this some weird Prawn Dance?

Crangonorchis pedoglossa - The Prawn Orchid

Here is the best group we found today.

There are 10 mature flowers in this image, 

but there are some 30 rosettes in this colony.

 A "school of Prawn Orchids"?

This is a loose group, within a narrow alleyway

between small dense shrubs.

Click to enlarge.

Martin was teasing me about not having seen me "getting down and dirty" (as I often complain about - on this Blog - having to do to photograph inside Orchid flowers. I said that these were just too short, and with the shape of the "hood and nose", it was barely possible to see anything anyway. However, I did find a few plants growing on a rock ledge where I could lie down on the rocks and approach the flowers from below. Then I gently pushed one flower backwards to look inside.

Surprise, surprise.

Not only was there a Midge inside the flower, but after developing the image tonight, I realised that there was a minute "flower spider" inside the hood, which had trapped the midge in its web. "S*ex and Death" is a perennial theme in the relationship between Orchids and insects.

Click to enlarge this next image to see the details.

Midge and tiny "Flower Spider" inside the Orchid flower.
The Midge has been snared in the web, 

so it is not sitting "naturally".

The bright line coming forward 
(from the left of the flower)

is the pointed "nose" of the Orchid,

which is the tip of the dorsal sepal .

You can also see a line of spider web 
in front of the flower.

The books refer to "Gnats" 
pollinating these Orchids,

Looks about right to me.

These are very small plants. 
The leaf rosette is smaller than a 5 cent coin.

We found a few other species of Orchids today, most of which I have shown in some form or other over the laast few weeks. The most notable were the Pharochilum daintreanum, of which we found many, in several different locations. We also saw Eriochilus petricola (on the rock shelves), Eriochilus cucculatus (flowers mostly finished, but some quite large leaves, which grow once the flowers have finished). Alan and I saw lots of Speculantha ventricosa earlier on in the morning, and later on, I found one solitary Speculantha of indeterminate species, on a great rock shelf on Twelve Mile Road (northern section) in the beginnings of the Budawangs. Unfortunately, the road was closed, at about the 15 Km mark, so we could not go as far out into the Budawangs as we had hoped.

Corunastylis superba, not only new to me, but rare as...

Corunastylis superba the "Pink Midge Orchid". This species is rare as hen's teeth. According to Alan Stephenson, this species is only known from a few sites, and we tried most of them on Sunday, and we found one plant in flower, and a seedling. That's hardly a good prospect for survival, is it?

Corunastylis superba - click to enlarge image

Note the extremely long "hairs" on the labellum. 

From straight on, you can see the labellum is relatively wide.

My Orchid-chasing colleagues Colin and Mischa Rowan

have more images of this species.

 *****

This next photo has been turned slightly, to straighten the flower

to make it look right.

(Please ignore the rough "filling in" of the corners.)

Just check out the details of the flower.

It has a very long lateral sepals, which are divergent

but pointed out and down,

unlike many of the other species which have the sepals 

curved up in the air.

 This is the same plant (the only one we found).

The colour is completely natural, as I was not using a flash.

 Here it is again, with a slightly lighter background 

to help you see it better.

And now for something completely different - a large green Katydid.
It looks upside down, because that's how these creatures like to hang out. Apparently they assume this position if calling to their partners (stridulating).
Note the very long antennae. The tips are marked on the image.

Katydid - a large green specimen.

This is possibly the Common Garden Katydid - Caedicia simplex.*** If it isn't then it is pretty close to it. The main query in my mind is that this insect was on top of the Sandstone Ridge above Bulee Gap, between Nerriga and Sassafras, on "Main Road 92", in low heathy shrubbery over sandstone rock shelves. Hardly "Garden" habitat.
*** Dr Dave Rentz advises: "It's probably an Elephantodeta or, perhaps, a Tinzeda. Definitely not a Caedicia". Thanks Dave.