Seeking Out Australian Native Orchids #84 - Werakata State Conservation Area, NSW

The mission for today was to find donkey orchids. Last year I found them on the western boundary of Werakata State Conservation Area. They were growing on the road verge up against the fence not far from the access road that runs through the middle of the park. The ride down was a little hair raising as a driver passed really close to me in the village of Ellalong = not nice. Did I mention that I like cycling these roads as they are traffic free? Traffic free yes but not idiot free.

Werakata SCA was recently proclaimed as a conservation area to protect a few endangered birds and also some specific trees endemic to the Kurri Sands Swampland. The management statement talks about the biggest problems being the illegal dumping of rubbish and the trail bike riding. There was no lack of evidence on both counts.

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/werakata-state-conservation-area

I parked up the bike and I began to walk down the acccess road and met up again with the trail bike riders I had seen on the other track. They must have been wondering how a walker got there faster than they did.

The disappointment of not finding donkey orchids was soon behind me as I found white fingers orchids on the banks of that track within 20 or 30 metres of the entrance - all on the left hand side of the track. I am learning that orchids do seem to favour the uphill side of a track. I reckon that what happens is the seeds get carried further away from the track edge on the downhill side and I am just not seeing them. These are easy to spot as the bank is about a foot to 18 inches (15 to 20 cms) above the track and the flowers stand with a flash of white another 4 to 6 inches above the ground

There were lots of specimens though most notable was they were all mostly white.

White Fingers - Caladenia catenata

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

The side on view shows the ruffles of the calli and the yellow tip of the labellum well. I like to think of this orchid as a white swan.

What I really liked from this session was the various states of opening. This front on view shows the lateral petals just separated at the tips

Taken at 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO-400.

and a little further along the track is a bud not yet opened - this does have the pink tinge.

And here is a specimen with the pink tinges. I know what that bud is going to turn into.

I did some more experimenting with the focus stacking setting - this time on this pink flower. This first picture is taken from a little further away

Followed by 3 more taken closer in. I can see the difference in the focal points.

I did try to merge these together in Photoshop - there is a clue as to how hard this is. On the right hand side you will see a spider web between two of the petals. I cannot get that aligned well enough - and the pollen on the stamens looks muddy as it cannot align perfectly.

Photos taken with Canon Powershot G16 on September 2, 2017.