Seeking Out Australian Native Orchids #79 - Muogamarra Nature Reserve, NSW

Muogamarra Nature Reserve is an extraordinary place to view wildflowers in spring, just north of Sydney. It opens just 6 weekends a year, preserving the fragile ecosystems and Aboriginal cultural heritage.

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/muogamarra-nature-reserve

I have been wanting to visit Muogamarra for ages. I cycle past it quite often and I have found orchids on the fenceline just outside the reserve. So I am fully expecting to be spoiled for orchids. I had checked out with the local National Parks office what the deal was. Open only on weekends - 6 weekends a year. The reserve is located on a high headland overlooking Brisbane Water and Brooklyn. Here is the photo I took.

Entry fee is payable but the man said "if you are on your bicycle it will be free". I packed my lunch and water into the pannier bag and the just in case put in some cash and ID. It was a warm day for the 27 km cycle ride into the park. I decided to skip doing the loop through Ku-Ring Gai Chase National Park as I had some work to do anyway without adding in the big hill to Bobbin Head.

The road into the reserve has some quite steep sections which are sealed only on the steep sections. The rest is gravel which made the last 2 kms of riding quite hard. Traffic was more than I expected. This was the first of the 6 weekends open - every man and his dog was here (sorry no dogs). I get to the checkpoint and the young lady is insistent on getting the $15 entry fee. "The volunteers should know better", she says. I make my way up the registration area - volunteer David is there. I choose not to tell him the bad news about the fee. Registration is required even for self-guided walks so they can keep track of who might be left in the reserve if there is a bushfire event. David points me to an orchid expert - she knew a lot about growing orchids but not a lot about where I could find them here other than the rock orchid which she knew about.

Part one is to do the loop walk at the top to take in the views to Brooklyn and Brisbane Water and to learn about the history of road building, water provision and nature preservation. David says there is a chance I will find spider orchids growing in the grassy area around the toilets. At least I get to find where the toilets are - no spider orchids and no rock orchids here but the views from the lookout are great. It feels a bit surreal to be standing on a hilltop I have only ever cycled or driven past.

Next walk takes me down across the saddle to the next lookout. This passes out of the dry eucalyptus sclerophyll forest down steep Hawkesbury sandstone sides to a sandy based saddle vegetated mostly with grevillea and banksia bushes. There are people everywhere - feels like George Street. I do find a flash of purple on a rocky sandy location just off the ground. It is the familiar pose of the priest and wellington boots wearing his purple cassock - a wax lip orchid.

Small Waxlip Orchid - Glossodia minor

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

Taken at f/8, 1/200 sec ISO-100

Photo work was hard as the flower was in direct sunlight with the sun angle casting shadows across the column. Camera settings tells me that I am slowly getting to grips with the camera. F-stop is as high as it goes. ISO dropped to approximate the old days of colour film to account for lots of light.

For context, the flower is the size of an American quarter and the column black bits the size of two match heads. Plant was standing no more than 3 inches off the ground which made it very difficult to get level to see inside the hood. I did have a go and here is a side on view which shows the frilled top of the column.

It also highlights the hairs on the stem. the luminescence on the petals and sepals comes from the fine hairs there too. The leaves are hairy too. I pointed the orchids out to my fellow walkers. A group of Chinese gentlemen tried very hard to get photos to work on their phones - hard work. I found this next plant in quite a different location - less sandy and away from the rocky platform - more in the dry schlerophyll forest that I have seen them in other areas. If photo work in the sun is hard, try dappled sunlight.

Taken at f/8, 1/160 sec ISO-400. ISO raised to keep f-stop high.

The walking trail wound down a fire trail track across the saddle and then back into the forest to climb to a big lookout. I met up with a young couple who were interested in the orchid spotting. I showed them a few wax lips. The young man has a much more bizarre hobby than orchid spotting - he collects and keep scorpions. Quite a lucrative business he says. Not for me. It was enough to stop me to study the bees in action. There were few puddles on the track side. The bees do not drink from the puddle itself but from the wet sand. Apparently the scorpions do the same thing. If I thought orchid photo work was hard - the bees were worse. There were a lot more of them than the picture shows - all buzzing about my head and arms.

The views from the trig beacon lookout to the north were worth the effort.

This view north is across the largest contiguous section of National Park in New South Wales over Muogamarra Nature Reserve and then Yengo NP and then Wollemi NP stretching right into the New England Dividing Range mountains.

From here I made my way back to the saddle and branched onto a fire trail that loops around the side of the mountain that the registration centre sits on and eventually reaches the river way below. I did not go that far as there was no orchid activity. I did photograph the yellow pea flower.

I came back to the registration area - not found the rock orchid yet. Am settling down at a park table to have my lunch and I spy the rock orchid - it is growing on a stone wall that abuts one of the small outbuildings.

Hard to say this is a discovery in the wild. I do not know if it is growing wild or whether it was planted by a person. These grow in my garden (I have one that flowers purple)

Sydney rock orchid - Dendrobium speciosum

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

Simple matter then to get on the bicycle and make my way back to the main road and the 27 kms back home - another 1 and half hours ride to add to what has been a full on day. I will visit Muogamarra again.

Photos taken with Canon Powershot G16 on August 26, 2017.