The pretender

Lobelia gibbosa – False Orchid

“It’s summer, and not a lot of orchids are about, but wait, who is that pretty blue flower over there?  Is it an orchid?  I’ve never seen it/read about this flower before.”

It might be a pretty flower that is fairly easy to stumble across in the bush, but sadly it is not an orchid, and many have confused it as an orchid, thus enabling it to gain the name “False Orchid.”  It is not even a lily, but is in the family of Campanulaceae.  Since I do not know a lot of information about this plant, I’ve been doing some research and it is really a fascinating plant!

There are several reasons why it can never be an orchid.  It is an annual and orchids are not annuals.  Although the flower may look like it has five segments, it does not have the distinctive column found in all orchids.

It generally has two to four purple/blue and sometimes white flowers that grow from a maroon coloured stem.  The flowers may have a stripe down the center of the petals.  Flowering begins in early summer.  Interestingly, at flowering time, the plant’s leaves have begun to die down.  The plant no longer depends on its roots for survival and can be uprooted and continue to grow.  Consequently it is one of the few flowers that can be found following a 40C heat wave!

It is a fairly widespread plant and can be found in all the states of Australia and even as far as New Zealand and South Africa.  It prefers a slightly open area for growth and seems to be able to cope with a variety of weather conditions.

So while it is not an orchid, or even a lily, enjoy it as it is quite a nice flower!

Know Them

Sources:

Archer, W. 2011. Esperance Wildflowers: Lobelia gibbosa – Tall Lobelia. [online] Available at: http://esperancewildflowers.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/lobelia-gibbosa-tall-lobelia.html [Accessed: Jan 2014].

Friends of Black Hill and Morialta Incorporated. 2013. Lobelia sp. in Black Hill, Morialta and Horsnell Gully Conservation Parks. [online] Available at: http://www.fobhm.org/noframes/lobelia.htm [Accessed: Jan 2014].

Victorian Orchids

South Australia is the only state in Australia that does not have any epiphytic orchids.  Our state is the driest state in Australia and does not have any rainforests that could offer a suitable condition for them.  So here is a video about some orchids that grow across the border in Victoria.

In Summer…

After having four consecutive days of over 40C (104F) heat, I’m pretty sure that there are not many orchids left in flower now.  However a weeks ago, the hyacinth orchids were in full glory.  Dipodium roseum is one of the most photographed orchids in Australia.  It is often found on road side edges which makes it easy to spot.

It is one of the largest terrestrial orchids and can grow a few feet high.  It grows around Stringy Bark trees as it needs a special fungi to survive as it has no leaves.  Can you spot it/them in the picture below?

This particular species is distinguished by having stripes (rather than spots) on the labellum.  The flowers vary from pink to a soft white, and can be growing on either a dark stem on green stem.  Personally I prefer the pink flowers on the dark stems and sometimes seem to forget the other variety.  Here are two variations growing together.

Keep cool/warm depending where you are!

Looking towards 2014

2013 was quite a fun year, and saw OrchidNotes first year anniversary in April at about 100 subscribers and in June we hit 10,000 views.  By the end of the year, both those figures had more than doubled.

WordPress has put together a summary of the statistics for OrchidNotes.

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 16,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete 2013 report.  If you like, you can compare it with the 2012 report.  It’s so exciting to see this website growing.

And as a teaser, my next post will be about Dipodiums.  I’ll hear from you then.

Some of my favourites

So I’m back!  I’ve enjoyed having a break from blogging while my non-orchid life has been busy and full of pleasant surprises.  Anyway it has been lovely to see that people are still looking at this blog, but I do feel a bit guilty for having not posted recently.  I’ve heard from others that they know someone who reads this, and I find that really nice to know that I make others happy by sharing orchids.  Please say “hi” and let me know where you are.  I would love to hear from you all.

So for today’s post, I’m just going to re-share a few of my favourite pictures from this year.  I did not get out as often as I would have liked, but I always looked forward to hunting for orchids.

First off we have Eriochilus cucullatus.  A friend told me about a lovely patch of Eriochilus cucullatus and gave me the coordinates to find the colony.  There were well over a hundred plants scattered across quite a distance.  I really like this pictures with the pollen sitting on the labellum.  I still don’t know how the pollen arrived there.

In June, my digital camera tricked me into believing that it had stopped working which worked out very conveniently because I was able to upgrade to a digital SLR camera with multiple lenses.  It’s been great fun to learn to use it properly.

The picture above was lots of fun to take.  The orchids are in a pot, and I set up the camera on the tripod, and zoomed in from a long way away.  The picture was actually taken indoors with the window to the front garden as the backdrop.  There was just enough afternoon sun to capture the golden colours.  This image has not been edited.

I was really excited to see the Arachnorchis rigida this year, after not having seen it for awhile.  I love the crispness of the flowers.  At this point I had not learnt how to colour correct the camera so there is too much blue, but I think it kind of worked for this picture.

Eventually I learnt how to colour correct.  The bush does have a beautiful golden colour which I feel has been captured in the above picture.  I did not realized that these two spider orchids had different coloured stems until I was looking through my pictures later.  I took this picture when I was planning to photograph a field of cockatoo orchids.  That day we were expecting a storm, and thankfully I was able to take my pictures before the wind had picked up and while the sun was still out!  Below are the cockatoo orchids.

While the field was still spectacular, many of the flowers had already finished.  Maybe next year, I can catch them earlier.

Everyone’s favourite, the large duck orchid.

This year finished by seeing both the duck orchids.  These are always a favourite and every year I seem to forget that they are smaller than I think!  The whole flower of the small duck orchid would be less than 1.5cm high.  I particularly like how these two small duck orchids turned out.

Below is a gallery of other pictures that I enjoyed taking.

A tired flower

The labellum of the Bunochilus viriosous (also known as Pterostylis viriosous) can be triggered. Photographed in Hardy Scrub

Orchids in the forest

Forestry SA land has some of South Australia’s most beautiful and exquisite orchids growing on its lands.  While it is predominately focused on pine tree plantations, it does recognize the importance of conserving our rare and beautiful orchids.  Here is a short film by Julian Pitcher, from Victoria, sharing his finds on Forestry land from a few months ago.

The small ducks came out a week or so after filming.

Enjoy.

Reflection and moving forward

OrchidNotes has been a fun outlet to share my joy of orchids.  However I have been super busy, and have some very important commitments (outside of orchids) that I need to give more time to.  As a results I may not be posting for a while here.  Hopefully it is not too long, and maybe in the future it won’t necessarily be once a week, we’ll see.

Recently I did have the opportunity to see those stunning duck orchids (Caleana major), and so I thought I’d share with you a few pictures.  Even though it was early November, some of the flowers were starting to look old.

A tired flower

The duck orchids can not be grown

The whole plant

From behind

Till next time,

Helen Lawrence

Lemon scented

Thelymitra antennifera – Rabbit Ears

The genus of sun orchids can be quite daunting to identify, but thankfully in South Australia Thelymitra antennifera is the most commonly encountered yellow sun orchid with its distinctive column.  It has two common names.  Rabbit ears describe the dark red “ears” that sit on top of the column.  The second name is Lemon Scented Sun orchid, which describes the soft scent emitted by these flowers.

This sun orchid has thin grass like leaf with a dark purple base.  The plants quite commonly have several flowers on them.  The flowers are relatively large compared to the small, short stem that holds them.

The Rabbit Ears sun orchid can be found right across Australia from Western Australia into Victoria and Tasmania.  It tends to enjoy a slightly opened woodland, and can be often found on the top of ridges and further down in the valleys.  It is common, and has a long flowering range.  Depending on the region, it can be seen in flower from August to November on any warm day.

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At the Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens

For something a bit different this week, I’m sharing a video made by my brother, Joseph.  It is about looking for orchids at the Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens.  If you do want to see some of the common orchids, this is a good place to go.

Have a good weekend.

The King

Arachnorchis tentaculata – King Spider Orchid

A hairy leaf of the spider orchid

The king spider orchid is one of the largest orchids, and the most common spider orchid that grows in the Adelaide Hills.  It can stand nearly a foot high, with the flowers nearly ten cm across.  Generally, they have one flower per plant, but sometimes there can be up to three flowers on one stalk.  This species is distinguished by having clubs on the end of its three sepals, as there are other orchids such as Arachnorchis stricta, which are very similar, but don’t have any clubs.

The orchid has a hairy bluish-green coloured leaf, with a slightly purple base.  The leaf is generally fairly rigid and can be four to five cm long.  On one occasion, I saw a leaf that was nearly 10cm high.  The plant had put a lot of energy into the leaf, and would not flower that year.

These spider orchids are pollinated by a native wasp.  The flower tricks the male wasp into believing it is a wasp, by giving of the scent of the female wasp, and through its deceptive (but beautiful) labellum or lip.  Once the male wasp lands on the labellum, or the lip of the flower, it dislocates the pollen on to its head.  After realizing that it has been tricked, it flies away from that flower with the pollen.  After picking up the scent of another spider orchid, the same story happens again, and the second spider orchid is successfully pollinated.  Sometimes the wasps can damage the labellum of the orchid, and this can be seen by it hanging lower than normal.

This is an albino form of Arachnorchis tentaculata. I have only seen this once, several years ago, even though I’ve returned to that site more recently. This is a rare form.

Several growers in Adelaide have been able to successfully grow these orchids.  One grower told me that the young seedlings tend to require an adult plant to be present, for survival.  This helps ensure that there is fungi there.  From seed, the spider orchids take about five years to mature and be able to flower.  The plant can live for up to nine years, and should put up a leaf each year, but it may not flower each year.

Personally, this is one of the more delightful orchids, as it has pretty colouring, and is one of the larger orchids.

Know Them