​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

Greetings fellow Foxies,
I was surprised recently to see orchids in bare and dry bark covered soil under wandoos and powderbarks in Dryandra Woodland Candy Block. Small and relatively inconspicuous Wandoo Beard Orchids and Frog Greenhood Orchids are tough customers that are adapted to drier environments. The Wandoo Beard Orchid (Calochilus stramenicola) has reduced petals and sepals that only partially open and a dense bearded labellum. Calochilus means"sweet lips".They may only open for a day or two while emitting a pheromone to attract large male Scoliid wasps. My colleague Lyn Alcock caught the image of a desperate male wasp attempting to enter a partially opened flower. If the wasp didn’t return the next day, the flower may have pollinated itself and closed.

Not fair! As a fellow male I express solidarity with the poor fellow.

 With these were several tiny but very healthy Frog Greenhood/ Pterostylis sargentii orchids flowering in Foxes lair in August!) and a single blue sun orchid about to open. The Scented Sun Orchid/Thelymitra macrophylla is relatively common in Foxes Lair in mid- late October including some tough places like two that flower in a marri log on the Banksia Walk.

South African Orchids are also occasionally found in tough places like that about this time.

Greetings fellow Foxies,
 
I was excited to find a Bird Orchid at a Dryandra Woodland reserve on Chomley Road, south-east of Highbury, because I hadn’t seen one for 60 years. My interest in wildflowers began then when my mother and I used to look for orchids in remnant bush at Karrakatta Cemetery. Alas now all graves.
 
This orchid has always fired my imagination with its elegant shape, translucence and the strange wispy labellum that gives the species name. Barbata means beard.
 
A few swipes of the trusty scalpel showed that bird orchids are basically redesigned greenhoods with a wispy labellum.
In this case the hood is folded inwards to form the entry and exit spots for gnats with essentially the same column tube and anther location.
 
I can’t work out how the wisps on the labellum prevent the gnat from escaping out the entry point, but it is hinged like other species to close when activated.
I wonder if the wisps help to spread a pheromone to attract male wasps?
 
Unlike the Jug and Shell orchids there is no little structure at the base of the labellum to trap gnats and retain them for a miserable death

 Greetings fellow Foxies,
 
After dissecting greenhood orchids to see how they trapped insects I moved on to shell and jug orchids that have a more open appearance. In the shell orchid image below one can see that the lower two sepals are upswept rather than being down to form a landing platform, the hood is more open, and the labellum is much skinnier. A few deft slices of my trusty scalpel revealed how this unlikely combination could force an insect to pollinate the flowers. Near the base of the interior the hood petals fold in and the labellum widens to seal the chamber containing the column tube.
In the cross-section below the labellum is closed, but if you picture it leaning forward, imagine a male gnat crawling down it, following the plant-made scent of a female (pheromone).
When the gnat get to the base, the labellum snaps forward, forcing it to climb the column (leaving behind pollen attached its body), through the tube where it gets another dose of pollen, and out of the flower.
Can you see a gnat that was trapped by a curly bit at the base of the labellum? It is the remains of a Fungus Gnat (rather appropriate that it has been consumed by a fungus), whose maggots consume mushrooms, but more of this below.

The Jug Orchid, Pterostylis recurva has an even more open- looking structure than shell orchids, but it is just a modification of the shell orchid layout.
It has the same infolded petals and thin labellum with widened base and little horns at the top of the column tube to position the labellum when closed.