Since we don't really know the first thing about orchids and we had a bit of time that day we thought we might sign up and go along.
The walk was run by the Normanville Natural Resource Centre along with others that week.
The 20 Acre Nixon Skinner CP was gifted in 1948 by Mrs Lucy Page in honour of her two grandfathers. We saw the stone in the park commemorating the gift of the land.
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| location of the park |
We turned up to Nixon Skinner Conservation Park, met some other people and wandered down the track looking for orchids.
None of us were experts, but some were more experienced than others.
We found out about a book "Start with the leaves" written by Robert Lawrence which identifies common orchids in the area and that is just what we did.
We started looking for the heart shaped leaves on the ground which give away some of the orchids, but also found the ones with the upright stems and no leaves on the ground.
Here are some of the orchids we found:
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| Nodding Greenhood - Pterostylis nutans |
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| Maroon-hood - Pterostylis pedunculata |
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| Fire Orchid - Pyrorchis nigricans Apparently these flowers turn black when flowering is finished but keep their form. The flower is supposed to only come after fire and pollinator is unknown. |
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| Spotted Donkey Orchid- Diuris pardina These were plentiful at the time and we got good at seeing them. |
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| Add caption |
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| Mayfly Orchid - Acianthus causatus |
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| Winter Gnat Orchid - Cyrtostylis robusta (I think) |
I'm trying to learn the names, so I have bored you with the botanicals as well as the common names.
We found this exercise very interesting and were keen to go out orchid spotting again soon.
Luckily the following week we had a walk planned in Hardy's Scrub (near Blewitt Springs) , which yielded more of the same plus a couple of new ones for us.
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