Tasmania #5: orchids

Now I know it's not very high-brow-botanist of me, but there is definitely something about orchids, that little spark of glamour and inspiration.

High summer isn't the best time of year for orchids in Tasmania by any means, but the flowering season was late this year, and as a result we managed to find some late spring things that we perhaps wouldn't have expected.

 The Green Bird Orchid Chiloglottis cornutus at Lake St Clair

 and nearby, the closely related endemic Chiloglottis gunni, the Purple Bird Orchid. These two have bizarre shiny globule-things (very technical terms here!), almost jewel like, in their 'throats'.

 The most flamboyant orchid we found, the Pink Hyacinth Orchid, Dipodium roseum in flower at Douglas Aspley NP on the east coast. A saproxylic or parasitic species that appears out of the forest floor, no leaves, just a flowering stem about 50 cm tall.

 And my favourite, at Cape Bruny, the Duck-billed Orchid Cryptostylis subulata

 

 Slightly more 'subtle', one of the plethora of Green-hood Orchids, a Pterostylis sp. 

 

And another saproxylic woodland species, the glamorously-named Potato Orchid Gastrodium sesamoides in the woods around Lake St Clair