Orchids at Morialta

Each month Parks SA features a park of the month, July 2020 this was Black Hill & Morialta, this is a popular park in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, a great spot for bushwalking and bird watching any time of the year. While the popular tracks are often crowded there are many less-visited tracks in other sections of the park. I have not visited the park for some time so I took the opportunity to visit.

I was fortunate enough to have Robert Lawrence an orchid “enthusiast” and force behind wild orchid watch join me along with learned Clement Siu who is new to the idea of citizen science although eager to learn. The middle of winter may seem like a cold and inactive time for biodiversity so it is often rewarding to walk with a diverse, as while some are looking up the other look down. This was a rewarding excursion for all with Clement and I learned to benefit much from Robert.

Thanks to Roberts experience we found many Veined Helmet-Orchid Corybas diemenicus including a patch of what looked like a hundred! Robert informed us that when you find a patch of these orchids you often find other species close. Sure enough, we sound many Small Mosquito-Orchid (Acianthus pusillus), gnat orchids (Cyrtostylis sp) and some greenhood orchids (including Pterostylis nana). While we stopped often and made little progress on the track, and many walkers passed us by missing the wonder that we found.

Only a few stopped to ask and were surprised when we pointed out what they had missed and two interesting ladies coming from the opposite direction who had as keen an eye as Robert. They were kind enough to inform us of some Orchids flowering further along the track. It’s a great time to get out and explore the parks of South Australia, and while you do why not record what you see. How would you do this? there is an app called iNaturalist that I use or you could use the local Wild Orchid Watch app specifically for orchids across Australia. If you would like to learn more about the biodiversity within Morialta Conservation Park, look up the project on iNaturalist link here.

Did you know spending time in nature can benefit your health? We are looking into the benefits of using citizen science to engage older Australians and the benefits of social connectivity and health. learn more here. We are also involved in the Great Souther Bioblitz held September 25-28th, this event has been organised to increase biodiversity awareness and participation in citizen science so please join us.