A Wet Walk in a Park

What are these people doing out in the rain?

Yesterday was Threatened Species Day so our September field trip today was focussed on a particular threatened plant. These people are braving the elements to get a good look at it.

First we went for a walk along the Orchid Track in the Brisbane Ranges National Park (which is nowhere near Brisbane),

where we found many of the tiny terrestrial orchids, and other wildflowers, blooming. The trees are black because of a fire that went through the park in 2006.

Unfortunately our orchid expert wasn't with us on this walk. So this is some species of Caladenia, but I couldn't say which:

And so is this:

A leopard orchid, Diuris pardina,

These orchids are really tiny. But there were even tinier ones, called gnat orchids, which I couldn't get my camera to focus on. I won't inflict my blurry photos on you!

Larger flowers included this bushy needlewood, Hakea decurrens:

The golden grevillea, Grevillea chrysophaea, is only found here and in Gippsland, 300km away.

It is listed as "Rare".

I think this is a myrtle wattle, Acacia myrtifolia:

A common beard heath, Leucopogon virgatus:

These flowers are actually very tiny. Their hairiness isn't visible to the naked eye (not my eyes, anyway!)

You might notice that there is water on many of these flowers. We had light rain on and off throughout the morning. But when we went to Anakie Gorge for our lunch stop, it started to rain in earnest. There was a small picnic shelter which was luckily just big enough for us all to crowd in to.

After lunch, we headed off to see some of the places where the velvet daisy bush, Olearia pannosa subsp cardiophylla grows. Raincoats, rainpants, and umbrellas were required as the rain was only getting heavier now:

And here is the vulnerable plant we were there to see:

It will probably look more spectacular in a couple of weeks when all those buds open, but there's pictures and more info here if you are interested.