About Me

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Canberra-based naturalist, conservationist, educator since 1980. I’m passionate about the natural world (especially the southern hemisphere), and trying to understand it and to share such understandings. To that aim I’ve written several books (most recently 'Birds in Their Habitats' and 'Australian Bird Names; origins and meanings'), run tours all over Australia, and for the last decade to South America, done a lot of ABC radio work, chaired a government environmental advisory committee and taught many adult education classes – and of course presented this blog, since 2012. I am the recipient of the Australian Natural History Medallion, the Australian Plants Award and most recently a Medal of the Order of Australia for ‘services to conservation and the environment’. I live happily in suburban Duffy with my partner Louise surrounded by a dense native garden and lots of birds.

Monday 25 March 2013

March of the Orchids

I don't generally think of March as being a good time for orchids around here, but when I started to go through my records, I decided that I might be wrong. In this part of the world at least, it's not so much a time for colourful ones, but there are quite a few fascinating and beautiful orchids (sorry, tautology!) to be found in this first month of autumn. As I've mentioned before, Australia uses the Meteorological definition of the seasons, according to which autumn officially began on 1 March.

Several species of greenhoods can be seen now. A brief word on the somewhat fraught state of Australian orchid taxonomy to explain oddities relating to genus names. Traditionally all greenhoods - some 200 or so of them - were placed in the genus Pterostylis, and for probably the majority of people they still are. However, as part of their gargantuan task of re-examining nearly all the Australian orchid genera, David Jones and Mark Clements of the Australian Herbarium split Pterostylis into 16 genera, mostly based on already recognised sub-genera. Their work was thorough and largely based on biochemical criteria. Jones, recently retired, is widely regarded as the doyen of Australian orchid taxonomists and conservationists; Clements is also well-respected. Unfortunately they chose to publish in The Orchadian, the journal of the Australasian Native Orchid Society - which does not peer-review its articles. In large part due to this, much of their conclusions have not been accepted by other taxonomists.

However, the only comprehensive identification guide to Australian orchids is written by Jones - so you see our problem... Around here it's even trickier as he also authored an excellent Field Guide to the Orchids of the Australian Capital Territory, which we all rely on. All of which is a long-winded way of explaining why several of the species which follow have two genus names; given that my audience is international, I'll use the most widely-accepted names, with Jones' names in brackets. (The same issues arise with some other genera, but they are not relevant to this posting other than the last species featured.)

All these photos were taken in March, but not necessarily this year. Except where specified, the locations are all in the Australian Capital Territory.

Summer Greenhood Pterostylis (Diplodium) decurvum, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
Dainty Greenhood Pterostylis (Diplodium) reflexum, Black Mountain, Canberra.
Below, part of a large colony.


Little Dumpies Pterostylis (Diplodium) truncatum, Black Mountain, Canberra.
I do like such quaint folk names, whose origins are now lost to us.
Blushing Tiny Greenhood Pterostylis (Speculantha) rubescens, Black Mountain, Canberra.
The rest of the featured orchids are not greenhoods, though there are certainly other greenhoods to be found. Dennis Wilson of The Nature of Robertson features a rare one here.

Large Midge Orchid Acianthus exsertus, Black Mountain, Canberra; above and below.
These were probably atypically early, but were well within March.
('Large' is relative, it's worth pointing out!)

Parson's Bands Eriochilus cucullatus,
above (Smith's Road near Angle Crossing) and below (Mongarlowe, New South Wales).
These delightful little orchids flower from late summer well into autumn; they range from rich pink to white.


Mountain Spiral Orchid Spiranthes alticola, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
This a truly exquisite little orchid, with each flower being no more than 5mm long;
there can be dozens of them twisting up the stem.
This used to be regarded as one species, S. sinensis, found all the way to China, but Australian plants are now known as S. australis; the species illustrated is recently described by David Jones and is widely accepted.
Tiny Strand Orchid Bulbophyllyum (Adelopetalum) exiguum, Nowra, New South Wales.
Another delightful miniature, flowers only 5mm long, growing on logs and rocks in rainforest.The splitting of Bulbophyllum by Jones is also contentious
For a couple of other March orchids, see my recent post on my visit to Monga National Park.

BACK ON THURSDAY

1 comment:

Susan said...

There's nothing wrong with how you have expressed the scientific names, if the new names are considered by some to still be subgenera. Putting the subgenera in brackets like that is correct protocol, and under the circumstances the easiest way to deal with the issue.

Spiranthes is the only genera Australia and France share. Sadly, ours are rare and declining -- one species is now extinct in my département (an administrative area like a super shire). I'm happy to report I found a new previously unrecorded colony of the other species last year though -- it is also autumn flowering and exquisite.