Apologies for those that may have been wondering where I was hiding over the last two weeks. It is a rarity for me not to sit down at my keyboard for a fortnight. I certainly wasn’t out on rock, nor wandering out bush. Not due to injuries or illnesses, but because Lisa and I got away for the weekend. We stayed in a concrete jungle, which really is not my usual habitat. It did however make a change and we had a lovely time. It meant we had to sort the stuff we usually get done on a weekend into a compressed timeframe when we got home:
I think it was on Monday, but it could have been Tuesday, Elspeth and Josh suggested ducking between the showers to get a wander in round the Manea Park. While tempted and itching to get out in nature, I was a little snowed under and didn’t join them. Missing out on a shower and a solitary Pink Fairy Orchid. They saw nothing else, not even a basal leaf. Not put off by the lack of treasures, on Wednesday I asked if they were keen to try again. This time we wandered down the road to another area, where we have had previous success:
The small patch of bush is technically still part of Manea Park. It sits out on a limb and the main difference is that, unlike other areas of the park, it is heavily weed infested. There was no need to dodge the rain today, we had nabbed a nice spell and the next front wasn’t due to land till early afternoon. We have certainly had a reasonable fill of rain during July, which has been very much needed after our driest summer on record. It has also helped the introduced pasture grasses, clovers, and arum lilies, which were popping up all over:
I just got a little distracted for a moment, not that you would have noticed. Getting caught up looking at my image library for this time last year. While Lisa and I may not get away too often for weekends away, scrolling back through the images we do however fit a lot of good times into our life. Josh had said that it was nearly a year to the day that he had spotted Helmet Orchids (Corybas recurvus), hence the reason for my distraction as I checked my past images of these beautiful orchids. This image being from our wander this year:
They were not out in the same amazing numbers as last year, but with a little hunting we found some great specimens. You may also notice in the previous images we came across a few Murdoch Snail Orchids (Pterostylis ectypha). I guessed the wrong species while out, each year I struggle with identifying the different snail orchids. Telling myself I won’t bother next year. Then next year comes in, and I get sucked in. For, my, future reference this one has distinctive fleshy basal leaves and generally more leaves up the stalk than other species:
We also came across Mosquito Orchids (Cyrtostylis robusta), which is another one I get a little confused with. I discussed this in my post last year about this very spot. They are very similar to the Midge Orchid, with a very subtle difference. Just as a note there are five species in the Mosquito Orchid genus, with one species actually called a Mosquito Orchid. Confused? Well I guess you may now appreciate while my head at times gets a little muddled to. But not as much with orchids as I do with fungi, that is a whole different and far more complex game:
Elspeth also enjoys spotting fungi, but I got the indication she didn’t go so far as trying to identify them. The is probably sensible, but I’ll give it a stab. I’ve seen the first one before and know it is from the Laccari genus, and think maybe a Brick Red Laccaria (Laccaria lateritia). The second fungi could be a Common Rosegill (Volvariella gloiocephalus), and the one below has me stumped. Unlike oyster mushrooms and bracket fungi this one had a distinctive stem attaching it to the tree, and I’ve had no success researching it:
The last three images are taken from a wander on Thursday at my local Capel Nature Reserve, which is not weed infested. Below is the only species of flowering orchid I could find, a Banded Greenhood (Pterostylis vittata), there was however lots of promise for months to come. Orchid spikes, a name I‘ve often heard used to describe pre-flowering orchids, were everywhere. The one two images up being a Sandplain White Spider Orchid (Caladenia speciosa). August is upon us and the next batch of exciting finds should soon start to come out:
Sandbagged 