Today I’ve stolen another batch of photos (with permission) from Aussie biologist Scott Ritchie, a great photographer whose Facebook page is here. Today we get to see flowers, including several amazing orchids. Scott’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
The Stirling Range is home to some beautiful spring flowers. Rare, unusual orchids endemic to the area are a highlight. Here are some of the flowers I saw from a recent visit. I hope I have the names correct!
Bearded Bird Orchid. Get it?:
More Spider Orchids:
The wasp attempts to mate with the orchid (the dark part in upper right that mimics a female wasp). The part of the flower to the immediate left then bobs down in response to the wasps weight, attaching a pollen packet to the back of the wasp:
The theme for these is an absolute delight – what is it called, naming a thing for its resemblance to another thing? Not alliteration,….
Not “mimicry” – which is also here for e.g. the wasp’s Sugar Dragon Orchid …
Beautiful photos!
Beautiful photos, beautiful flowers. I was sort of hoping for an orchid spider to go with the spider orchids, but I know that’s an unreasonable expectation.
Awesome orchids (and other living things).
It is exciting to see these remarkable orchids. We Americans rarely or never see photos of these.
Lovely, excellent photos of amazing flora.
Gorgeous photos, thanks!
The wonder. How fortunate we are to have orchids living alongside us.
Wow. Just wow.
Beautiful!
Late to add that I love these pictures. I’m especially entranced by the ‘yellow flowers’ for some reason. I’ve added it to my desktop background rotation.