There are now three of us at work discussing our orchid adventures, and we have set up a chat group on which to share our finds. Unlike some orchid enthusiast, who may keep the location of their finds secretive, we also divulge those. That said with Josh’s more distant travels, it is not always likely that we will follow in his footsteps. Through these chats on Thursday Elspeth, during her lunch time stroll, attempted to find the Warty Hammer Orchids Lisa and I had recently spotted at Manea Park. Sadly without success:
Next week I have the week off, and when that happens I am usually pretty prepared with my workload to avoid any last day rushes. And so on Friday I took the unprecedented step of actually taking a lunch break, and accompanied Elspeth on a second stroll at Manea Park. This time we had success, and in the nick of time too as some of them were starting to go to seed. The engorged green ovary and shrivelling dark purple labellum indicating this. We also spotted, not unexpectedly, heaps of the above Sandplain White Spider Orchid (Caladenia speciose):
While observing one patch of the Sandplain White Spider Orchids we also found the distinctly different spider orchid below, with a bright pink tip on the labellum. This is a hybrid orchid, something that is not uncommon in the orchid world. It can however be a tricky task to work out which two orchids have cross bred. The closest my trusty book can direct me is that it may be a Protruding Spider Orchid (Caladenia × exserta), a cross between a Common White Spider Orchid (Caladenia longicauda) and Darting Spider Orchid (Caladenia uliginosa):
However, the Protruding Spider Orchid should have a deep red tipped labellum. So I thought this may be a cross between a Sandplain White Spider Orchid (Caladenia speciose) & Darting Spider Orchid (Caladenia uliginosa), for which I can find no name. This request for assistance was a tad too tricky for Noel, who confessed to not being that up to speed with hybrids. He has however referred my enquiry onto one of the other authors of the book, Justin. As yet I have not had a response but it seems my circle of support is growing:
The above may seem like a small clump of the humble Cowslip Orchid. However, if you look closely the petals of the flower on the right and left are quite different. The flower on the left being one of the more frequently encountered hybrids, resulting from the cross breeding of the Pink Fairy Orchid (Caladenia latifolia) & Cowslip Orchid (Caladenia flava). Below is one final image from Elspeth and my walk round Manea Park, not all but several Scented Sun Orchids (Thelymitra macrophylla) are just starting to come into, almost, full flower:
As we were coming to the end of our walk some people coming the other way warned us that they had just spotted a large snake just off the path, but unfortunately we saw no sight of it. While I have talked extensively about orchids in my more recent ‘going walkabout’ posts, that is purely due to being that time of year when they are most prolific. I am however enamoured by all of nature’s treasures, and would love to see more reptiles. It does not happen as much as I would like partly because they will often and unseen move away, way before we would get the chance to see them:
There is however only one way to see these things and that is to get out, which is what I did once more on Saturday afternoon. A quick trip to my local Capel Nature Reserve where I went off track and lost myself for an hour, ambling round areas that looked interesting. I like the above Hort’s Duck Orchid (Paracaleana hortiorum), if only due to having two flowers which is not often seen for this species. I have pondered whether it may be the Flying Duck Orchid (Paracaleana nigrita), due to the slight hump in the labellum but this is not as defined as I have found in others. And the more telling sign for me is that the calli, purple bubbles, are not so pronounced and also do not extend far enough back:
Above is yet another image of King-in-His-Carriage (Drakaea glyptodon), the big distinctly shaped labellum a clear give away. Each time I see this flower now I cannot get the image of an giant avocado out of my head, which is explained in the linked post (https://sandbagged.blog/2022/09/24/let-the-hammer-fall/). That is not my reason for including yet another image of this species. It is due to the flower was displaying something I have not seen before in a hammer orchid. The head of the ‘king’, which is the stigma, would normally open to release pollen. But in this case something is extending out of the stigma, and I have not found any information to explain this. So all I can do is liken it to a special effect of an alien breaking free from its host, just like in some science fiction horror film:
Above is one last image from the Capel Nature Reserve, an albino form of the Sandplain White Spider Orchid (Caladenia speciosa). I have seen a pale form of this orchid in Capel already but that is a little different from a true albino. The pale form of spider orchids generally exhibits light green colours, which my previous find did as shown in the linked post (https://sandbagged.blog/2022/09/09/here-there-and-everywhere/). As I left the sky was starting to darken, although not from being out late. Controlled burns are underway, a safe 17km away from where I was, and the smoke was drifting towards the coast. Making for an eerie looking sky as I was driving home:
Sandbagged 