Australian native terrestrial orchids

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Here's another couple of pics of the Diplodium coccineum now that more flowers have opened.  As requested, I've included a pic of the full plant to give you an idea of the scale and of the growth habit etc, as well as a pic of the 2 new flowers and the colours of the original flower now that it has aged.  It's a very nice red I think!!  I have been told there are various shades of coccineum and that some have a good red and others don't, so I'm pretty pleased with how red this one is.   

Pterotylis ophioglossa is in bud at present (I must check if it has been renamed or not  ).  The Leptoceras menziesii are now out of their bag with the banana skin, and they're potted up safely.  Fingers crossed for flowers. 

[Darren]

Paul,

That's a nice red Diplodium. The foliage looks taller than when I've grown it - are you keeping it heavily shaded?

Could your Chiloglottis be C. trapeziformis? Flower and short stem look right.

Steve - Thelymitra flower well for me once the tubers reach flowering size (generally over 1cm in diameter, some bigger species such as T. nuda are about the size of a hazelnut). Diuris fall into two groups: Those which increase rapidly but sacrifice flowers (e.g. D corymbosa) and those which flower well but increase only slowly (e.g. D aurea). D corymbosa (syn D longifolia) flowers better if allowed to get crowded and is undisturbed as far as possible, but I still don't expect it to be generous.. Caladenia are hit & miss, some years they flower well and some years not - I have not yet worked out why. Same goes for Corybas as discussed earlier. Not a single flower on my quite healthy pot of incurvus this year but diemenicus next to it is showing plenty of buds - but is very late this year.

[SteveC2]

Paul, thanks for the pictures.  You happen to have hit on one of my collection.  Am I right in thinking that the Diplodium has two growth forms; one flowering and the other not flowering but with a leaf rosette?  Last year my pot contained about 50:50, this year seemingly all non-flowering.  Presumably the flowering forms do not have enough leaves to produce tubers for the next year or am I wrong?
Sorry if my posts sound like the Spanish Inquisition but that's why I joined the forum, to pick experts' minds.
I've just taken delivery of some tubers on Aussie time so it will be interesting to watch your plants over the next few months.
Darren, many thanks.  It's nice to know that some of these plants are so down right unpredictable.

[Paul T]

Darren,

It is fairly shaded, but the leaves did this last year as well.  It does seem to sit upright quite strongly for me.

I don't think the Chiloglottis is trapeziformis, or if it is then it is a very, very different form to the other one I have.  The other one flowers in spring, whereas this one is flowering in late summer.  My other is taller, and the proportions of the flower are different.  I have "A Complete Guide to Native Orchids of Australia" by David L. Jones and I have yet to go through it properly with the camera pics in front of me (they show so much more detail than looking at the flower in person), but I think I may have worked out which species it is.  I'll get back to you with the name once I think I've sorted it. 

[Paul T]

Paul, thanks for the pictures.  You happen to have hit on one of my collection.  Am I right in thinking that the Diplodium has two growth forms; one flowering and the other not flowering but with a leaf rosette?  Last year my pot contained about 50:50, this year seemingly all non-flowering.  Presumably the flowering forms do not have enough leaves to produce tubers for the next year or am I wrong?
Sorry if my posts sound like the Spanish Inquisition but that's why I joined the forum, to pick experts' minds.
I've just taken delivery of some tubers on Aussie time so it will be interesting to watch your plants over the next few months.
Darren, many thanks.  It's nice to know that some of these plants are so down right unpredictable.

The majority of the Pterostylis family have flowering and non-flowering tubers.  Each tuber produces a leaf rosette, but in some cases this is all.  Some species produce an inflorescence separately to a growth point, if they flower straight out of dormancy (I have had decurrens do this this year for the first time...... a flower spike straight out of the ground, now the leaf rosettes are appearing on both the flowering and non-flowering tubers.  I am unsure exactly what triggers flowering.  Maybe conditions in some species, size of tuber, number of leaves.... I'm guessing different things for different species.

I don't mind the spanish inquisition.  Always happy to try to help people with my limited knowledge.... just make sure you get second opinions as I am certainly no expert.

[corymbosa]

Paul,

The Chiloglottis looks like sylvestris.


Andrew

[Maggi Young]

Hello Andrew (corymbosa), great to have another Australian orchid fan in the Forum.

[Paul T]

Welcome Andrew!! 

I had it identified last night at our local Orchid Society meeting as Chiloglottis seminuda.  C. sylvestris has flowers much larger than mine when I just checked the references to compare.  

Here's a couple of other Aussie natives that I photographed at the meeting last night..... Diplodium abruptum and Speculatha (that is what it had on the tag, no other info).  Sorry for not brilliant pics, but the conditions for photographing tiny flowers like this were pretty awful.  

I hope you all enjoy.

[corymbosa]

Thanks for the welcome.

I had it identified last night at our local Orchid Society meeting as Chiloglottis seminuda.  C. sylvestris has flowers much larger than mine when I just checked the references to compare.  

I was trying to decide between seminuda and sylvestris but I couldn't see notched in the main callus, the lateral sepals seemed to be quite spread out and the clubs looked greenish so I went with sylvestris.

[Paul T]

Andrew,

I just looked at the size when I did my quick comparison.  The guy who ID'd it last night should be fairly reputable, as he knows his terrestrials pretty well.  Even then, he was using one of the books to work it out for sure, as many of them are rather similar, and they're so blinkin' tiny.   So are you here in Aus, or an Aussie native orchid lover from overseas?

[corymbosa]

I'm in Victoria. I mainly grow Australian orchids; mostly terrestrials and Sarcs, although I'm trying to expand the number of exotic terrestrials in my collection => I stumbled on this forum looking for info on Pleione at Paul Cumbleton's site.

[Maxime_P]

Caladenia 'Fairy Floss' indoor
Second blossom in 4 years of culture here

[Darren]

You are doing better than me Maxime - ten years of culture and never a flower!

[Paul T]

Congratulations, Maxime!  Well done.

[Darren]

The first of my Thelymitra - this is T. macrophylla x luteocilium