Following a great nights sleep, in our Ezytrail camper, we awake to a beautiful winters morning at the Munglinup Beach Campground (Mud Map SE 33). After a leisurely breakfast we finally go exploring for orchids. In the consolidated sand dunes we find what we have been looking for. So many pterostylis rosettes, so we move around in extreme care, looking for orchids in flower.
In the middle of all theses rosettes we eventually find some Curled-tongue shell orchids (Pterostylis rogersii) standing tall. Well about 100mm tall that is. Flowering plants lack the rosette which is a distinctive feature of shell orchids.
No other flowering orchids found. Numerous leaves of different species found, so a return visit later in the season may be warranted. As we are camping the night we spread our search wider, by packing up the Triton and driving west into Lake Shaster Nature Reserve. This track west leads to some possible beachside camping and day use areas and it along this track that we find our next pterostylis species.
Sand track into the Nature Reserve
They appear to be Dark banded greenhoods (Pterostylis sanguinea) which are a greenhood with brown to green flowers. They are found in coastal dunes and scrublands when near the coast.
Further along the track a lonely snail orchid is spotted. I am unable to identify this specimen after referencing my books, so if you can assist please leave a comment.
We reach the beach and take a break to enjoy the lunch that Deb had whipped up back at camp. We then move a little further west to another beach where Deb tries her hand at fishing, whilst I explore for orchids in the surrounding dunes. Deb was more successful than I, so we return back to camp with no more orchids found, however I did find a good patch of leaves.
Lunch time view View from my exploring back to Deb fishing Sign of orchids to come
Found the orchid we expected in the shell orchid and the snail and greenhood orchids were a bonus. Deb got to fish and we both got to enjoy our beautiful south east coast on a sunny winters day. Now to light the campfire and have a drink or two.
