Tiny Orchids

Not the orchids in my shade house, but tiny native orchids. They are popping up all over the place at the moment.

This first one is very hard to see:

So here's a larger photo of what the flower looks like close-up:

It is an Eastern Bronzehood orchid, Caladenia transitoria. The flower is only about 20mm across, and the stem is about 100mm tall. The species was first described in 1998, which is rather amazing. They are easy to miss, in other words! I don't know if they have been flowering here every year, but this is the first time I've ever seen them. But unless you were looking for them, you might never see them. On a walk around our block today we found about 10 of them flowering.

This next one is Musky Caps, Caladenia moschata:

It is larger and taller, and with white flowers it is a bit easier to see. But you still have to look closely to notice them. We found a smaller number of these in flower on our block, and again, this is the first time we have seen them here.

The last one I stumbled across while looking for the others. It is purple, although of course the camera shows it as more blue than in real life:

This is a Waxlip orchid, Glossodia major, or possibly going to be moved to Caladenia major. I have also never seen one of these here before. Although before we started attending the field naturalists club, I hadn't seen one at all. I didn't even know they existed.

While searching for orchids in flower I found lots of buds. I have no idea if they will be different species, or more of the same ones. Whatever they turn out to be, it is such a thrill to find these tiny native flowers growing right under our feet!