Orchids are usually a highlight of Teds track, though being autumn and very dry we were not hopeful of seeing many. However, even before starting on the track, we found a few leaves of Nodding Greenhoods Pterostylis nutans beside the road verge.
Nodding Greenhood leaves
Early on the beady eye of one of the walkers found a Tiny Greenhood Pterostylis parviflora.
Tiny Greenhood
After that she helped us find many more, plus several heart-shaped leaves, purplish below of Small Mosquito Orchids Acianthus pusillus. Later she found a different orchid which was too undeveloped to identify.
Gnat Orchid in bud (photo taken 1 week later)
We saw bright flowers on a few plants of two species: Common Heath Epacris impressa, and Cranberry Heath Styphelia humifusa.
Common Heath
Both had bright pink tubular flowers, but the Cranberry Heath flowers were almost hidden in the foliage of the prickly prostrate plant.
Cranberry Heath
Later in the walk the flowers of Prickly Broom Heath Monotoca scoparia were a disappointment as they were mostly still in bud. We only found a couple of female plants with tiny white opened flowers, so it wasn’t possible to see the difference between the female and male flowers.
We saw the remains of flowers, or seed-heads, on several species, such as the tiny white flowers on Common Beard-Heath Leucopogon virgatus, and pale seed heads on Brunonia B. australis. Mostly we had to identify plants by their leaves and growth habits… a challenge for even the more knowledgable of us. Fortunately some plants, such as Large-leaf Bush-pea Pulteneaea Daphnoides, Common Flat-pea Platylobium obtusangulum, and Holly Lomatia L. ilicifolia were very easy with their very distinctive leaves.
Large-leaf Bush-pea
Common Flat-pea
Holly Lomatia
Honeypots Acrotriche serrulata tricked many of us with its bundles of developing pale green leaves which resembled flower buds.
New leaves on Honeypots
There were a large number of beautiful Austral Grass Trees Xanthorrhoea australis but many were sickening or dead from Phytophthora cinnamomi, which is unfortunately a very effective soil borne water mould.
Grasss tree
Infected Grass tree
Grass tree killed by Phytophthera
The male and female plants of Small Sheoak Allocasuarine misera were easy to identify with last years brown nuts on the females, and the developing, slightly orange tips on the branchlets of the male plants.
Male Small Sheoak
Female Small Sheoak
Our pleasant morning tea/coffee stop at the top of of the ridge gave us a view in all directions, and chance to discuss the many possible walks off Teds’s track and nearby.
Ellinor Campbell