Summer serenity

The tourist season is getting into its stride and I am enjoying sharing my backyard with the guests staying at my workplace, Stewart Island Lodge. My first visit to Rakiura in 2009 is vividly etched on my memory and I hope all visitors leave happy and relaxed and with fond memories of this extra-special place.

Above and below: Early morning panorama from the Lodge deck

I haven't had a lot of time for slow walks lately so it's nice to have long, sunny evenings to go orchid-hunting. Most of the spider orchids have finished their flowering although my special clump has lasted longer than most...

...and now it's the time for the greenhoods, Pterostylis, and the bamboo orchid, Earina mucronata

Pterostylis in flower on the roadside bank near home

View from the top

Close-up of Pterostylis flower

The Aporostylis, Caladenia and Drymoanthus are budding up and there's a miniature forest of sun orchid, Thelymitra, appearing - they usually flower in January but the seasons seem to be mixed up - no doubt I'll be posting photos as soon as they are out! My large patch of green bird orchids, Chiloglottis, were a bit displaced by kiwi probe holes a couple of months ago; there must have been a lot of juicy worms there.

My last photo was my attempt to go 'arty'. I was walking past the Cenotaph when I noticed a wee poppy flowering among the rocks - it must have seeded from the ones planted last season.

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

Orchids and an eclipse

Native orchids are popping up all over the place - there's never a 'boring' walk here and it makes me realise how much I missed when I had a car. The summer-flowering sun orchid (Thelymitra) just has green shoots at present and most of the greenhood (Pterostylis) orchids haven't flowered yet but there are a heap of spider orchids (Corybas) in flower. My camera doesn't have much depth of field so it's challenging to get a good photo with most of the flower in focus - but trying is always fun.

Greenhood orchid flower (Pterostylis)

Earina mucronata flower buds starting to open

A spider orchid flower (Corybas)

Spider orchids high on a bank at the base of a tree

I think this is Corybas rivularis in flower

Close-up of spider orchid

Newly opened spider orchid

Another shot of the one above

And another angle

This spider orchid leaf is about the size of my thumbnail

Corybas rivularis in flower

This spider orchid has the longest lateral sepals I've seen

Close-up of Corybas rivularis flower

Earina mucronata flower buds - almost open

Delicate greenhood orchid flower

Of course, you realise I'm guessing at most of these! I usually check out Hugh Wilson's 'Field Guide to Stewart Island Plants' - but tonight picked up the 'Colour field guide to the native orchids of New Zealand' by Eric Scanlen and Ian St George and got totally lost. This fab reference book has Corybas as a synonym for Nematoceras, a name I haven't come across before. And the 'rivularis' part has changed to 'rivulare' - or is this a different orchid??

I'm in awe of the people who specialise in identifying our native plants; the range is so diverse and the orchid 'language' especially has my brain stretched to full capacity...

"Sheathing bract at stem base, is a colourless, trumpet-shaped sheath, usually sloping up to a variable apiculus at the rear, whose point is mostly dark but sometimes green. Peduncle lengthens as a scape after pollination for good seed distribution."

Just as well there's a website that makes it easier - go to New Zealand Native Orchids website for a look around. Their Orchid Structures web page is great to learn the parts of an orchid flower. I'll have to study it well so I can start identifying some of the plants I find.

The total lunar eclipse last Wednesday night was almost a fizzer here. Heavy cloud and driving rain was the excuse for an early night but fortunately I woke at 11pm and watched the moon sliding into full eclipse with the occasional cloud sweeping past. My wee camera came up trumps again with being able to capture some of the action, not bad at all for a 4x optical zoom and being handheld!

 

 

Orchid update

Spring is symbolic of new beginnings and every day I'm seeing evidence of this special season - the orange branches of the deciduous native tree fuchsia (kotukutuku) are now clothed in green leaves and flowers, the yellowhammer has started his repetitive 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' call and I've now found my first greenhood flower of the season.

Sun orchids (Thelymitra) reaching for the sky in early September

New spider orchid (Corybas) leaves

A clump of Pterostylis orchids on my boundary track including the first
flower of the season

Close-up of above - the flower's not quite open

The warmer temperatures are bringing some weird and wonderful fungi - I found this one on my walk home yesterday; when I looked closer today I found two more nearby. They are called 'brain fungi' or False morel, Gyromitra tasmanica.

Easy to see how they get the name 'brain fungi'

Taken 15 September

Taken 16 September - am I imagining it or is the stem redder?

A grey springtail (collembola) feeding on the surface of the false morel

More fungi along my drive

Native clematis climbing up a lancewood - the mature vines
will be flowering in the next month

Beautiful new growth colours