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The orchid is magnificent. I've had orchids in pots for years but I've never seen a wild orchid in person. Neil, would you tell me the climate, type of soil ( wet, moist, bark, dirt sand etc. ) and temperature this beauty lives in.
It's a Mediterranean climate very similar to Southern California's. There's a wide variety of native orchids that appear in spring and they are only 50 - 75mm (2 -3 inches) high. Annual rainfall where these were found is about 460mm (18 inches), with most of that falling in winter. Temperatures vary from winter minimums of -5C (23F) to summer maximums of 47C (117F). You can find these orchids pretty well anywhere where the land has been protected from sheep and cattle grazing and the land has been left undisturbed, so that means you need to walk through native scrub to find them (but they can be spotted from the roadside in a reserve as this one was). The soil here is fairly poor, sandy, with clay underneath capping limestone, but I've seen native orchids in higher rainfall areas that are cooler. The orchids die back and disappear in summer. I don't think they like artificial fertilisers; lots of Australian plants can't tolerate them.
How lucky you are to see wild orchids ! Are you in your spring as we just had our first day of fall? I'm thinking so since you are upside down or down under... I would like to see Australia's wild life some day and meet Aborigines. What an awesome ancient ancestral back ground they have !
Aborigines certainly know how to survive well and live in harmony with the Australian environment, whereas white settlers have just tried to convert it to a New Europe.
We are way off topic here - so please transfer any further correspondence to a PM.
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