Seeking Out Australian Native Orchids #58 - Ku-Ring-Gai Chase NP, NSW

The day dawned grey and rainy and I had literally hundreds of messages wishing me all the best for my birthday. They came from all over the world and from people I have known for a short while and from people I went to primary school with all those years ago (over 50 years).

One message made me sit up and pay attention:

Happy Birthday, hope you have a wonderful day filled with bitcoins and orchids

I had achieved the first part - bought some more Bitcoin. Finding orchids was not really on my radar screen because of the damp weather. The message got me motivated enough to get on the bicycle and head down the hill to seek out orchids. Hans would like that because he is an avid outdoor man though his preferred mode of exercise is kayaking. Maybe I could find the pterostylis longifolia which had eluded me a few weeks back.

The picture shows the walk location. Park up alongside the old inn and walk up the hill behind. I must say I am so blessed to have such a great National Park facility right on my doorstep.

The picture also shows a grey day which was going to make for a massive photography challenge. I was not wrong there. The first orchid I found was growing underneath a rocky crag - you can see from the background that the plant is fully surrounded in the rock cave which will also explain the weak colours especially on the callus which is more normally purple in colour.

Pixie Caps orchid - Acianthus fornicatus

http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Acianthus~fornicatus

Photo taken at f/2.2, 1/60 sec, ISO-1600 - tells its own story - stops wide open (lens goes to f/1.8) and very light sensitive ISO setting. Normally I would not share these pictures because they lack focus but I do want to show the colour variations and the spiders web. That web is barely visible to the naked eye.

Further up the hill I found another acianthus flowering in the open.

Photo taken at f/3.5, 1/160 sec, ISO-1600 - this allowed a smaller aperture and a faster shutter speed. I could really have gone up a stop or two more to keep speed at the 1/60 sec level. This highlights the purple colour of the callus - the advantage of a plant growing in the sunlight compared to one growing in a cave.

The next one a little further up the hill has quite a green tinge in the dorsal sepal (the hoody thing) and the callus combines the green and purple.

Pixie Caps orchid - Acianthus fornicatus

http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Acianthus~fornicatus

Photo taken at f/3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO-1600. There is often a chance to photograph mushrooms especially after a little rain. They bring a different photography challenge - I will focus on getting orchids right.

I made a birthday card to thank everyone for the good wishes and especially to thank Hans for chasing me outdoors on a grey day.

Note: Photos taken with Canon PowerShot G16 on June 19, 2017