More Spring flowers

When we last visited Shipwreck Creek our orchid expert guests spotted some large leaves that they identified as belonging to Prasophyllum sp. orchids.  Of course it wasn't possible to identify the species without the flowers.  So we took ourselves back there on 24 September to see if the flowers had emerged.  They hadn't but there were a few other things of interest.

The road down there is rapidly becoming somewhat ordinary.  That is a tad worse than "average".  At least Parks had cleared the fallen trees off the road in their section.  On the subject of fallen trees ...

 The information shed was very lucky not to have been hit by the falling branch.  Indeed it was very lucky no-one was using the picnic table at the time.

We saw a few Glossodia minor flowers at the start of the heath area but the images didn't come out well.  Burchardia umbellata (Milkmaids) was much more common than on previous visits.  (The black specks are the anthers.)

 A swathe of Tetratheca sp.

 I have mentioned previously Comesperma volubile, a climbing plant with blue flowers.  In the heath at Shipwreck the purple flowers of C. ericinum are more common.  When looked at closely the structure of the flowers is very similar.

 A bean!  I will go no further than that

 Leptospermum laevigatum was common.  I thought this blossom-covered bush was particularly attractive.

 We found various pink Caladenia sp.  Some were quite large and rated as C. carnea.  There were also some tiny ones such as this.  In view of the size and as the petals look to be rounded with the end of the labellum yellowish green, I believe this to be C. pusilla.

 The biggest excitement was finding two sun orchids (Thelymitra sp.).  This first image gives a view of the white tufts ...

 .. while this angle shows some spots.  I will thus call it T. ixioides.    It is a bit early but our book says they start flowering in late September near the coast.

 A view of the second plant .

 More research was needed on this one but I have concluded it matches Chaemaescilla corymbosa (Blue Stars - certainly apt).

 As we got back to the Melaleuca forest Frances noticed this tall Diuris in an open patch. It was very tall for this genus and ...

.. had an unusual pattern of dark markings, which match well to Diuris orientis.