I must confess that since we got our new puppy – Bertie – I’ve been rather busy. Time just seems to have slipped away. So the other morning when I was reading the news on ABC I came across a story about how the orchid season in the Wheatbelt had kicked off early. It caught me completely unawares. Normally what I do is draw up a list of what I want to see with when and where and then see where there is an overlap so I can get the most bang for my buck. Then I get my orchid kit together and make sure that everything works and is ready to go. That hasn’t happened this year. A mad whirlwind of frenetic activity saw me pack my bag and find an old list that for some reason I didn’t enact. So quickly organised I headed out on my first orchid hunt of the season.

 

The target species was the Eastern Curly Locks (Thelymitra maculata). I know of two places where they occur. One location, Wandoo National Park, is easy to get to and the plants are easily found near the road. That means orchid poachers often dig them up for selling illegally.  The other spot I know (I won’t divulge its location) has more flowers, but,  is harder to get to and involves a lot of walking and careful searching. Wandoo National Park was chosen as this was all a bit of a last minute decision.

 

From the description in the ABC article I was expecting to see quite a show as the areas has other species of orchid that should be in flower as well. As I walked through the bush I saw very little orchid activity. Out of the 8 species that should be flowering I saw 3 and there were only a few of those. At one point I wished I’d had my birding kit as I managed to flush several quail as I walked around. The irony being when I’ve gone birding there I didn’t see any. I zig zagged through the bush and didn’t find any Eastern Curly Locks. Dejected I settled for photographing some Dwarf Pink Fairy Orchids (Caladenia reptans subspecies reptans) and some Banded Greenhoods (Pterostylis vittata). I’d promised my partner I’d only be a couple of hours so I packed my kit away and headed back to the car. I took a slightly different route back as I didn’t want to go back through the tangle of sheaoak that had slowed me down while on the outward journey. I stopped to look at some carnivorous Red Ink Sundews (Drosera erythrorhiza) when out of the corner of my eye I spied 2 Eastern Curly Locks. So I had ticked the first orchid off of this years list.