Greetings fellow Foxies,
I have been into Thelymitra/sun orchid flowers lately.
Sun orchids have normal petals and sepals like many other flowers. When a Foxes Lair visitor found it difficult to believe that they were orchids, I couldn’t give a simple answer why. It is the fused pistil-stamen structure called the column, but simple it is not, and discovering why was a real journey for me!
The image below shows male (stamens) and female (pistil) parts of a fairly typical Ixia lily.

​In our orchids, the filaments and style have been fused to form the column, which usually contains anthers at the top and the stigma at the base (reduced to a stigmatic plate).
Most orchids aso have a modified bottom petal called a labellum, which acts as a landing ramp and an insect attractor.
​Pollinators are led up the labellum to the stigmatic plate. In doing so they unknowingly collect pollen by rubbing against the anthers at the top of the column, and drop pollen that they accumulated from another orchid.
Blue,cowslip, and sun orchids do not suppy pollen or nectar for pollinators. They rely on visual deception by resembling flowers such as lilies and hibbertias  which do.
One would think it would be easier to supply a bit of nutrition. Perhaps the energy saved from being stingy gives them an edge in very dry seasons. Some produce a scent, most don’t. 

​Sun orchids lack a labellum, and their anthers are not at the top of the column. 
After many hours pondering over the structure of a sun orchid column, I realised that the shape is a compensation for the lack of a labellum, and designed to entice insects to land directly on the column.
The column has an oval sheath below (wing), which surrounds the anthers and stigmatic plate. It pinches at the top and opens again as a smaller hood, to give the overall shape of a hooded cloak.  Thelymitra is derived from Greek words for ‘woman’s hood’
The hood is the most distinctive part of the column, often shaped and coloured like an anther, and having knobs, wings,’ hairs’ and sometimes scent to attract insects. I thought the yellow hood was an anther. It certainly fooled me as well as the hoverfly below (which was too large to pollinate the orchid).
In the wing cavity anthers are separated from the stigmatic plate by a pouch, with a knob on top called the rostrum. 
 How does it operate? Small pollinating bees would land in the hood area, then tip backward to contact anthers underneath and drop other pollen on to the stigmatic plate.
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​Apparently, the anthers from insect pollinated plants remain intact and stick to the bee as a unit. Anthers on self-pollinated species break up, allowing pollen to fall down to the stigma plate.

With flower colour, the shape and protuberences of the hood and wing distinguish sun orchid species. See the variations!

The leopard orchid is the weirdest. In addition to knobs, fringes and cilia, it has a long projection (resembing a priapic little man) called an anther point, which joins the anthers . Leopard orchids are self pollinated, so perhaps bees jiggling the anther point breaks up the anthers to release pollen.The closely related York sun orchid  has a similar column. Interesting that the Lasioglossum native bee in the image is attracted to the top of the column

Being a commited Darwinian I find it difficult to see how all these modifications benefit sun orchids when they are pollinated by similar native bees.
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Another case in point is the beard orchid, which uses pheromones and a bearded labellum that looks like a female flower wasp to a male. Why bother when the orchid pollinates itself? Perhaps the wasp's frantic probiing breaks up anthers, but it seems a bit over the top. Still that is why nature is so fascinating.
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 To quote Charles Darwin. 'Evolution doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough'..

Greetings fellow Foxies,

North Yilliminning reserve is 22km from Narrogin on the Narrogin-Kulin Road.  This road roughly follows the ancient Binneringie dyke, which has been the catchment divide between the Hotham and Blackwood rivers for  hundreds of millions of years. Coming from Narrogin prepare to turn off into a rest bay under trees on the right, soon after passing Taylor Road. Armstrong road marks the eastern side of the reserve.

Radiometric imagery has produced colours on the photo, which show general soil types. Orange-brown indicates brownish fertile York gum, jam and rock sheoak soils. Green indicates gravels. Darker colours indicate paler and deeper sand. ​
A breakaway following the highway on the northern edge of the reserve is a contact zone between dolerite to the north (fertile york gum farm land), and granite to the south. The breakaway has brown mallet and red morrel woodland with sparse understorey at its base and patchy lateritic woodland at the top.
​The reserve is underlain by granite mostly hidden under sandy, gravelly, and ironstone soils. Most of the reserve is a gently sloping upland with old and infertile soils. Topsoils on the ridges are stony and shallow, with white sandy topsoil on lower slopes and valleys. An old vegetation map of the reserve has colourful descriptions, such as 'poor wandoo' and 'useless plants and dryandra'.

There hasn't been a fire here for decades. In some areas fallen trees (mostly sheoaks) make walking difficult, and plant diversity has reduced as fire dependant seeders have died out. Most vegetation is open woodland.
There is attractive bushwalking country. Being a sandy block, there is a multitude of cowslip orchids. Litttle pink fairy orchids also occur with sugar, snail, greenhood, jug, and donkey orchids, and a patch of purple enamel orchids. Unlike many surrounding reserves there are very few spider orchids.

the​An amazing feature of this reserve are dozens of cowslip/little pink fairy hybrids, which have multiple forms and colours. Elsewhere they are uncommon (only two groups in Foxes Lair).
Orchid hybrids tend to be more common in spots where there are lots of one parent and fewer of another. Here cowslip orchids greatly outnumber little pink fairy orchids, and normally flower for much longer. I noticed that hybrids are much more common on shallow sandy gravel slopes, where soils hold less water than deep sands and sands over clay.  I think that hybidisation is enhanced by periodic water shortages. which reduce the flowering period in these soils. In drier seasons, the flowering period for the cowslips on these soils is shortened to that of earlier flowering little pink fairy orchids. Here pollinators are more likely to visit both species together and create hybids.
Hybrids are generally sterile, but expand asexually from root tubers into clumps.
You can see the amazing hybrid variation in this reserve in this blog. 
The best time to see the hybrids is about the third week of August. To see them, turn into the parking bay with a picnic table and continue up a dirt track going south. Soon after you go over a low ridge (about 200 metres from the picnic table) park in a dirt bay on the left (east), which is marked by a stone cairn and a rusty tin. Look on either side of the track here. There are more hybrids on the eastern side, but more attractive wildflowers and bush on the west. The track ends at a dead end a bit further on. It is a good spot to wander through the open woodland to the south and west where there are many cowslip orchids and some more hybrids.

​Greetings fellow Foxies,
A wet winter has enabled me to see the root structure of Drosera bulbosa/red-leaved sundew. I see it in water-gaining red soil areas in Foxes Lair and in moss beds on or around granite outcrops. Leaf colour varies from green to yellow and red, the latter due to nitrogen deficiency when plants are waterlogged or stressed.

Rosette sundews such as this,survive over summer as a fleshy root tuber. In winter a fleshy stem called a rhizome emerges and grows to the surface where it develops roots and leaves​. At the end of the season, the top withers and dies as nutrients are drawn back into the tuber. Daughter tubers may then be produced, as a base for new plants.
Due to their location, these plants are at risk of being washed away or snapped off by running water, which undermines them or breaks off clumps of moss containing them. A plant below, which snapped of at the surface has developed another tuber to find soil and make new roots.

Images below show plants that were washed out of the soil with roots and tuber intact. One had an emptied tuber as its resouces were used to produce a rhizome in search of soil

​Greetings fellow Foxies,
I have been wandering around Foxes Lair since about 1990 but still make new discoveries. Last year i found a single leaping spider orchid (Caladenia macrostylis). Unfortunately, this beautiful double-header is in a public spot and was picked this year, I still pondering on protection measures. It is yet another of the Foxes Lair orchids, which is an only plant or in only one spot.

​This season I stumbled upon a group of lazy spider orchids (Caladenia multiclavia) in the district. They are amongst the most ornate orchids I have seen, particularly when the sun is behind them. They are also very hard to see in their natural habitat. While very carefully placing dead branches around to protect them, I inadvertently stepped on one. Their location will remain secret until they are fenced.

​The lazy spider orchid's insect-shaped labellum indicates that it tricks flower wasps into pollinating them, as does the dragon orchid (Caladenia Barbarossa).
The intriguing article below tells how spider orchid species could have evolved from general insect pollination to targetting flower wasps.

The article inspired me to collect images below of spider orchid flowers that show changes in glandular calli (raised, fleshy growths on the labellum) to resemble a female flower wasp more closely.

The ultimate is the flying duck orchid. I have discovered that there is a species in the district and hope to hunt it down next year.

​Another specialist is the elbow orchid Spiculaea ciliata, which flowers on and around granite outcrops