Orchids on the way home

What a stunning day today - calm, blue skies and warm temperatures; the perfect day for slow walking home taking photos of the orchids up the Back Road hill. This is the third year that I've weeded the bank; to begin with it was just the dandelions but now a bigger threat is looming with rampant growth of Lotus, a clover-like legume that might be a good pasture grass but it's a jolly nuisance here. The rhizomes grow behind the bank surface so when I pull the roots out the bank collapses too. Short of painting weedkiller on the leaves, I'm not sure how to tackle the problem.

The hill up to my home is about 500m long with a bank on the right hand side for about 400m, then a bank on the left hand side for the last 100m. The vegetation on the bank gets trimmed in late summer or early autumn to retain visibility for drivers and in September the orchids start appearing. Here's a selection...

Flower bud appearing on ?Thelymitra longifolia



This looks like Aporostylis bifolia but there's only one leaf, not two

A group of Pterostylis (greenhood orchids)

Not sure of this one

Close up of greenhood orchid flower

The ants were swarming over the base of the flower above

Another clump of Pterostylis

A slightly different greenhood orchid - perhaps Pterostylis Montana?

Another close-up of greenhood flower

Greenhood flower just starting to form

Corybas (spider orchid) in flower

What a sweetie

Another clump of greenhoods

A mass of spider orchids

Looking down the throat of a spider orchid flower

Close up of Corybas flower

Side view of Corybas flower

Another side view of Corybas flower

A mass of Thelymitra (Sun orchids) - they're later flowering and won't
open if it's not sunny