It is amazing how much more I can see when I have a knowledgeable guide to point out the tiny Australian Native Orchids in flower.  I must have walked past some of the tiny mosquito orchids hundreds of times without noticing they were in flower.  My friend B.J., who is an orchid enthusiast visited today, and showed me so many mosquito orchids which had finished flowering. We didn’t find one still in flower.  However, we did find a few interesting flowers, including many gnat orchids, blunt greenhoods, mayfly orchids, many nodding greenhoods of various sizes, and some Early Nancy Native Australian Lilies.

The close-up photos I took of the Gnat Orchid were not clear enough to post, so I will go out and have another try tomorrow, but this photo of a clump of Gnat Orchids will give you some idea of the form of the flower.

We came across a reasonably large patch of Blunt Greenhoods along one of the tracks that I walk around every day.  They were tucked in underneath some bracken, just to the side of the track.

I never fail to be amazed at how adept B.J. is at seeing a tiny leaf, smaller than a fingernail, and being able to tell which species of orchid will grow from it, and whether or not it has already flowered.  She pointed out yet another species of Greenhood to me, but I didn’t write down the name of it – I think it may have been a Maroon Orchid, or something similar (Sorry B.J.)

We came across the first of the pink flowering Sundews today.  This will either be a Pale Sundew or a Tall Sundew.  At the moment, I am not sure which of these it is.

The Mayfly Orchids were just beautiful.  So tiny, they are difficult to appreciate until captured in a photograph.

Finally, the first of the Australian Native Lilies are in flower.  These Early Nancy flowers are in the lawn between the house and the dam.  There is a male and a female form of the flower, both of which are shown below:

Thanks B.J. for an educative and enjoyable afternoon!