Today we plan to catch up with 2 fellow native orchid enthusiasts out at Condingup, which is 69kms or so East of Esperance. We arrive at the townsite location, park up the Triton, then head off on our search, whilst we await the others. As it turns out Kath will be arriving a bit later, so we only meet up with Varena at this location.
After exploring for a while, we finally meet Varena and compare notes from our current and previous visits to this location. We do appear to have found the same species with some possible variation.
Some early season species are found still hanging in there. The Hare orchid (Leporella fimbriata) is still recognisable even though it commences flowering back in March, with June listed as its final flowering month. Another early season orchid is the Scented Autumn leek orchid (Prasophyllum sp. ‘early’) which flowers from April through to July. The final orchid found here was a Banded greenhood (Pterostylis vittata) which flowers from late April to September. We were successful in finding some Curly locks in bud; however, we could not find any King-In-his-Carriage orchid leaves or buds. Maybe we will get a chance to revisit later in the season.
Moving on to Condingup Peak (Mud Map SE39) for a quick check. Nothing found other than a very worse for wear Hare orchid. Kath pulls up just as we were leaving, so we make tracks for the Parmango Road location to have a quick bite to eat for lunch, before we take them on the trek to our Curly locks location.
Unfortunately, not a great deal was found flowering here either. More Banded greenhood and Hare orchids were found, with the only excitement being a nice patch of Robust snail orchids (Pterostylis dilatata) being found hiding in the middle of a low-lying shrub. These are large snail orchids that lack a rosette and have clubbed lateral sepals, both being distinguishing features. They flower from May through to August, so are another early season orchid, which appears to be the theme for today.
Final destination to share is our spot in the Beaumont Nature Reserve. A very quick explore which turned up some nice specimens of the Banded greenhood or are they? We still enjoyed our day showing Kath and Varena some of our local haunts. I trust they enjoyed their day as well.
