Seeking Out Australian Native Orchids #75 - Ku-Ring-Gai Chase NP, NSW

Spring is the season for sun orchids. I know where I can find them on my regular bicycle training ride down to Apple Tree Bay. I had seen sun orchids on my last walk from home a few days back. So I am sure to find them in the national park on my way down the hill even though last year they were out a little later in the season. I do love the ride down to Apple Tree Bay - 9 kms down the hill and the bay is a place of peace - and looks especially good at high tide.

I spotted the sun orchids in a new location on my way back up the hill lower on the hill than I had previously seen them. That is not unusual. Orchids propagate in two ways. The tubers divide like a potato does and they also send out seeds. The rain takes the seeds downhill. These flowers are growing on the roadside at the bottom of the rocky ledge - easy to spot as I cycle up the hill - a flash of blue in amongst the canvas of pink and white proffered by the wax flowers at the top of the ledge.

The flower of a sun orchid is quite a bit bigger than other orchids - almost an inch in diameter (bigger than a US quarter coin - size of an Australian 20 cent coin.) Photo work should be easier as camera needs to be a bit further away to capture the whole flower in the frame. The challenge is the flower stands on a stem that is 20 to 30 cms high (9 to 12 inches). Any wind blowing and the flower is blowing in the breeze. This photo is not in focus - I present it as it has a small creeper spiralled around its stem. That creeper will probably strangle the flower before the seeds are ripe. I had not noticed that when I took the picture.

Spring time is a blaze of colour - yellow here

and pink and white for the Geraldton wax flowers

A little more about the sun orchids on a more focused photo. The structure of the flower makes it look more like a normal flower with 6 petals. The front 3 are indeed the petals. The back 3 are actually sepals (imagine the flower bud as it forms - the outer layer of 3 elements folds away first to reveal the petals beneath). The lower petal is not different to the other two petals as it is on other orchids. The column is very distinctive - one can see easily that it is a single element though it does have a fringed part. Identification is easy - the shape of the column and spots on the sepals/petals tell me it is a Spotted Sun Orchid.

Spotted Sun Orchid- Thelymitra ixioides

http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Thelymitra~ixioides

Zoomed in a bit better focus on the column.

Location photo shows the height of the ledge compared to the size of the bicycle. There is a plant just to the right above the saddle and one standing high in the middle of the frame. This made it very easy for me to spot from the bicycle as I rode past. The photo also gives clues on the photography challenge - strong sunlight coming from the road onto the ledge. This means I had to work at getting my shadow fully over the flower or take the photo the other way around into the sun.

I quite like the effect.

All the photos taken at ISO-800 - should really have brought that down to ISO-400. I did want to keep aperture closed down as much as I can get on the camera (f/8) Exposure speed was between 1/200 sec and 1/500 sec.

Spring is here. Taken at f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO-800

Photos taken with Canon Powershot G16 on August 17, 2017.