Flower Friday - Orchid

Four days out of 4 - not a bad effort.  That's four days in the Park, enjoying this wonderful weather.  It won't last for much longer (the weather not the Park)

So, the name of this little beauty is Parson's Band (Eriochilus cucullatus), because it looks for all the world like a little man holding out his hands in the pulpit, with his long white parsons collar flowing down.

You can't see the little parson so well from this angle, but I think this shows the structure of the orchid better.

As with many terrestrial native orchids, the flower is small, although the stalk can be as high as 15cm.  This one was much smaller - maybe 10cm.  They flower from late March to May, and is fairly common, in undisturbed bush.  The flowers always appear before the leaves, which can then last some time after flowering has finished.  It usually has one flower per stem, and on rarer occasion can have up to three flowers on one stem.  This orchid appears to like growing in small open places, including rocky places and old tracks.


We had a guest this afternoon, so I wasn't able to spend as long as I would have liked, but maybe tomorrow!

EDIT: my good friend, WWombat has started a challenge, May macro mayhem. Please tag all your macros #maymacromayhem - it's going to be enormous fun.