Thelymitra alpina

Mountain Sun Orchid at Cotter River, ACT

Request use of media

Identification history

Thelymitra alpina	6 Jan 2018	MichaelMulvaney
Thelymitra alpina	14 Dec 2017	TonyWood
Thelymitra (genus)	13 Dec 2017	GlenRyan

Identify this sighting

Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.

User's notes

At this location there were 11 plants (that I could see flowering) growing in grass/weeds along the roadside verge over about 100 metres. There was a lot of variation in these plants - some had smaller and/or less flowers plus there was a wide range of colours from blue to pink. Plant shown here was probably the showiest example with the most flowers out - and the pinkest colour. I have pretty much no experience at all with Thelymitra so was interested to find this diverse little batch on the side of the road. From a superficial thumb through Field Guide to Orchs ACT I guess T. alpina maybe ticks some boxes? But more for location / roadside verge etc rather than any precise botanical analysis ;) So very interested to see what the experts think! There was another Thelymitra growing further back into the forest just nearby with much more consistent flowers and form - plus a much wider leaf than the roadside verge plants. I'll post that separately. Cheers! Glen

3 comments

TonyWood wrote:

14 Dec 2017

Hi Glen, my first impression was T. alpina, its the right location and image 3 appears to show two small horns on the dorsal part of the column which is a characteristic feature of that species. I did see a similar looking plant at Smokers Gap a couple of weeks ago which I have tentatively identified as T. brevifolia, mainly on the basis of its short broad leaf.

GlenRyan wrote:

14 Dec 2017

Thanks Tony - I just added a few more images (including another leaf shot) of the variations slightly further up the hill on sighting 3387180. May or may not add something to the images here - hopefully there's something extra that helps! Cheers Glen

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

7 Jan 2018

This should be regarded as probable identification rather than definitive - Thelymitra are difficult to ID from photos

Please Login or Register to comment.

Location information

Maps Namadgi National Park
Places Cotter River, ACT

Sighting information

11 Abundance
GlenRyan Recorded by
Collections
GlenRyan Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Orchids Plants

Additional information

True In flower
10cm to 30cm Plant height

Species information

Thelymitra alpina Scientific name
Mountain Sun Orchid Common name
Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Machine learning
In flower
External link More information

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Queensland

Northern Territory

Western Australia

South Australia

Victoria

Tasmania