Tasmanian Orchids

Summer and Autumn 2024

The rainfall at Hobart during 2023 was some 200 ml below the long term average (450ml compared with 650 ml aprox.). We saw a number of sites badly affected by drought in the Spring of 2023 and the low rainfall has continued into 2024. Hobart’s Eastern Shore and the Mount Wellington Foothills seem to have been badly affected by the lack of rain. Feb 2024 saw only 3mm and at the time of writing, mid-April 2024, the drought has continued unabated.

Some species seem to cope better than others with this prolonged lack of rainfall and thankfully the higher slopes of Mt Wellington were still quite damp with the usual range of orchids at altitudes around the Springs and higher.

The Midge orchids did appear in some locations with Corunastylis nudascarpum in flower on the mudstone slopes behind the Cascade Brewery in January. I didn’t see later flowerings of C tasmanica and C despectans in the South Hobart area this year and whether this was due to drought o other factors is not clear. The Midge orchids appear to be quite variable as far as flowering times are concerned, at least on our mudstone hills around Hobart. The C tasmaniaca at Peter Murrel did not appear either this summer as far as I could see. The ground and vegetation at Peter Murrel was extremely dry and desiccated.

I ventured farther afield to the Freycinet Peninsular and was rewarded with good displays of Midge orchid species around Coles Bay including Corunartylis tasmanica, Morrisii and just two C pumila. I only know pumila from one location though it was spotted much further south on the peninsular this summer. A few morrisii were also seen in new locations near Sleepy Bay and on My Amos.

One pleasant surprise at Freycinet was that the large colony of the spiral orchid, Spiranthese australis, definitely one of my favourites with this spiral arrangement of delicate pink and white flowers on a 40-50mm scape had returned, having been underwater the previous season. These orchids like the margins of swampy ground and thrive on areas that can be inundated for a period during winter but dry out in warmer seasons.

Other species you might expect in late summer such as Parsons Bands (Eriochilus cucullatus) and the tiny Pterostylus parviflora, both of which occur commonly in the dry foothills of Mt Wellington seemed to be very limited, again probably due to the exceptionally dry conditions.

Further South around Lonnovale, the Tounge orchids and the diminutive Elphin midge, Corunstylis archeri, flowered well, having been affected by cutting back the scrub in their area last year.

The Summer greenhoods seemed unaffected by dry conditions on the higher slopes of our mountain.