Last weekend Howsie and his family had enjoyed a great few days out at Narrogin, exploring the local reserves and he sent me an image of a cluster of amazing looking orchids. Upon asking him if he left it was worth the drive out there for a day trip, he hesitated. Quite rightly to, as whether it was good enough was a matter of opinion and his might differ from mine. But from the sounds of it they had seen quite a lot, which was enough for Lisa and I to agree it was worth the risk. We headed out a bit earlier than usual, as it was a little over a two and half hour drive from home:
We stopped in Narrogin first with the intention to get a bite to eat. As we sat munching on our food, and she whooped my arse at Yahtzee while watching the people milling about on the cold streets. It was then time to drive out to a small reserve called Yilliminning Rock, to see if Howsie’s word would hold true. We immediately found a few Donkey Orchids, the common species, but it was a great start. I’ve seen a few before and always get excited when I do as I reckon they look very cool:
While there are over twenty species found in Western Australia, I think I’ve only ever found the common species. And today we found more of them than I have seen before, in some areas the ground was littered with them, in all stages of life. It was quite staggering. Sadly what was also present in vast numbers were mosquitoes, despite the cold wind. It had rained shortly before we arrive, and just the slightest bit of moisture is enough to kick them off. They were not very pleasant but we preserved and kept looking about:
Not in as many numbers were the Fringed Mantis Orchids, another relatively common orchid and one I have seen every year since I’ve been looking for these amazing flowers. The longer we stayed out there the more of these I saw and while it was tempting to photograph every one of them, just in case there were any variants or different species the mosquitoes kept us moving:
Another orchid I have seen a fait bit in previous years was also present. Here only a few Pink Candy Orchids were about, and they were looking like they were reaching the end of their life with the petals starting to brown up at the tips. Still it was worth a quick snap to include in this post before moving on:
Then came the find I was hoping for, Howsie’s amazing image had been a cluster of Chapman Spider Orchids. The only difference being that I only came across a few single flowers. The labellum is a tinge of green with red stripes and only slightly fringed on the edges. The other give away sign to give this species away was that the sepals and petals broaden out before narrowing down to slender tips, with that green near the flower before turning red:
My reason for all the detail above was that I thought I saw them again when I snapped the next one. But with the luxury of being at home having both my orchid guide and the internet, and more importantly being free of mosquitos has allowed me to have the time to really look at the images. I feel pretty confident in saying this is either the Slender or Crimson Spider Orchid, with the key reasons being the completely deep red and narrow sepals and petals, and white labellum:
Lisa was getting munched. Her leggings are great for walking in but today wasn’t really a walk. We were wandering about in a small reserve, taking our time and going slowly. This allowed the mosquitoes to land on us and her leggings provided no protection against their long and sharp proboscis. So she headed back to the car to relax with her book away from the flying pests. Meanwhile I continued my search and came across a small patch of these:
I have to admit that I was stumped with the above one and it took me a while before I felt safe in saying it is a Sugar Orchid. I’m again pretty confident about this due to the sepal and petal configuration, white inner and a purple almost powdery looking outer surface. Also the funnel like labellum and fringe is quite unique. There was another lady out looking at the orchids and she was armed with the biggest camera lens I have seen, she was in the big league:
Gypsy, which she told me was her name, said she had found a single White Spider Orchid and pointed me in the general direction. As you will see from the above I found it, but I also found a group of seven or more of them. There are quite a few White Spider Orchids, but this is the common variety with a wider labellum and relatively long fringes. While I prattle on about all these finds I should mention that there were heaps of Jug Orchids out, the one below was yet to fully open:
There were also stacks and stacks of Cowslip Orchids, and for some reason I consider these as the common cousin of orchids and as such haven’t included an image of any of them. Lisa, later on in the day, posed a good question of whether they are called cow-slip or cows-lip orchids… I started my way back towards the general direction of the car, not that I could see it. And stumbled across another orchid that at the time I thought I had already seen
Indeed Gypsy indicated it was possibly a variant of the Chapman Spider Orchid, however the labellum is quite different being white with red stripes, and the sepals and petals again are very distinctive. So I’ll stick my neck out and say these were Noble Spider Orchids. Then there were these as shown below, and again I don’t think they are a variant. I would guess due to the multiple flowers from one stem and other features they are probably the Common Spider Orchid:
I found Lisa lying down in the tray of the car, safe from the mosquitoes. And due to the pillow she had brought, because of the early start, she was also quite comfortable and happy reading her book. We hopped in the car to head out and I noticed my hands looked a bit munted from all the mosquito bites. For this reason when back at Narrogin we got some antihistamines to help with the swelling and itching and some insect repellent, for the second reserve we aimed to visit:
Foxes Lair, is right on the edge of Narrogin up on a ridge and as such it was pretty dry. We doused ourselves in repellent needlessly, as there were hardly any mosquitoes. Also there were not many orchids and no new ones that required a more detailed look. The place was however littered with flowers, with peas, banksia and dryandras in bloom all around and many other flowers scattered about. It was certainly very beautiful but we didn’t stop much:
After a short couple of kilometres we were back at the carpark, so decided on walking round another loop. This loop was really dry and much of it was devoid of any undergrowth, the leaves and bark of the eucalyptus trees had smothered the already dry and harsh ground to subdue any other plant growth. The three locations we had walked in today were so different from one another, yet they were all relatively close:
We didn’t see too many flowers on the second walk at Foxes Lair, but it was still pretty in its own way. We did however spot four plants that looked out of place in the dry and barren landscape. I’m guessing they may be an exotic plant and likely weed species, which Howsie later confirmed as the South African Lachenalia. We have to say thank you to him for pointing us in this direction, as we have never seen such a variety and sheer number of orchids as we did at Yilliminning Rock:
Sandbagged 