Brown

Discovering Unique Orchids in Goldfields Region – Final day of our Pub Crawl trip

List of Orchids Found, Nature Reserves, Numerous days, Road Trip, Victoria Rock NR, Western Australian Orchids

15/09/2024

We check out of the York Hotel in Kalgoorlie, then say our goodbyes to Bob n Jan who are heading straight home to Esperance.
Deb and I on the other hand have more orchid hunting to achieve on our return home.

First point of call is Victoria Rock Nature Reserve at 10am on this beautiful Sunday morning. For the next 2hrs or so we wander around the rock and surrounding woodland. The flies are terrible, so we actually wear our head nets on this exploration. We are rewarded for our perseverance with some good orchids found.

In no particular order the following orchids were located and photographed:

Little laughing leek orchid (Prasophyllum gracile),
Dainty brown rufous greenhood (Pterostylis tryphera),
Desert mignonette orchid (Microtis eremicola),
Ant / Clown orchid (Caladenia roei),
Yellow granite donkey orchid (Diuris hazeliae),
Lemon-scented sun orchid (Thelymitra antennifera) and
Granite sun orchid (Thelymitra petrophila).

Prasophyllum gracile
Pterostylis tryphera
Microtis eremicola
Caladenia roei
Diuris hazeliae
Thelymitra antennifera
Thelymitra petrophila

Numerous hybrid orchids were an exciting find.
Parents are the Lemon-scented sun orchid and the Granite sun orchid, both of which have been found at this location.

Thelymitra antennifera x T. petrophila (Yet to fully open)
Thelymitra antennifera x T. petrophila (Inverted flower)

Onwards to our next location, we head south down Victoria Rock Road and turn left onto the Hyden-Norseman Road.
Upon reaching the Coolgardie-Esperance we make a right turn, then pass through Norseman.
Our next location, Bromus Dam is to the right of the highway some 30kms south of Norseman.
We head straight for the McPherson’s Rocks granite outcrop and start our exploration.

We are fortunate to find the following orchids in flower:

Cream spider orchid (Caladenia horistes),
Little laughing leek orchid (Prasophyllum gracile),
Cowslip orchid (Caladenia flava subsp. flava) and
Yellow granite donkey orchid (Diuris hazeliae).

Caladenia horistes
Prasophyllum gracile
Caladenia flava subsp. flava
Diuris hazeliae

We need to keep on moving closer to home, so we make tracks south along the highway as far as Circle Valley to check out the woodlands surrounding the salt lakes.
Here we find the Short-sepaled spider orchid (Caladenia brevisura) in good numbers with one lonely Midget greenhood (Pterostylis mutica) and a all but spent spider orchid (ID unknown).

Pterostylis mutica
Caladenia brevisura
Caladenia sp.

Well, that is our final stop on the Pub Crawl road trip done and dusted.

Our trip with Bob n Jan started back on the 7th of September.
We stayed overnight in some interesting pubs:
Newdegate Hotel
Kukerin Community Hub
Cuballing Tavern
Hotel Beverley
Greenhills Inn
Koorda Hotel
Palace Hotel – Southern Cross
York Hotel – Kalgoorlie

A wonderful road trip enjoyed with good friends.