Another intriguing Australian Terrestrial Orchid  was among the many flowers we found on a sunny day last week.  Richard initially saw a plant that seemed to have a differently shaped bud. We noted where it was growing and waited for our expert friend to visit. She identified that it would develop into a Duck-Orchid. Another keen-eyed friend spotted a second one – so we have at least two of them!

Here are photos of the two orchid flowers.

More than one species of Duck-Orchid exists. Unfortunately my Field Guide only contains the Large Flying Duck-Orchid, which seems much darker than the Orchid on our property.  My guess is that this is a different species, but I’m not sure.  It is difficult to obtain field guides to Australian Terrestrial Orchids. The best guide for Victorian Orchids is out of print, so I’m in the process of researching other guides that may be helpful.

The two examples we found were approximately 10cm high .