2 Late Beard Orchid at Charleys Forest, NSW
Identification history
| Calochilus therophilus | 22 Dec 2024 | Tapirlord | ||
| Calochilus therophilus | 21 Dec 2024 | MattM | ||
| Calochilus platychilus | 21 Dec 2024 | CarbonAI | ||
| Unidentified | 21 Dec 2024 | arjay |
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Significant sighting
User's notes
Calochilus. Could be either platychilus or therophilus. Way taller than either of them usually are (500mm). Much later than the other platychilus that have been and gone. Also much earlier than the therophilus usually are (still to appear). Anomalies could always just be a function of the season.
5 comments
arjay
wrote:
22 Dec 2024
We see them most years. But not until the end of January usually. And this one is exceptionally tall ... over 600 mm now. And the flowers are not yet all out. So odd.
DerekC
wrote:
22 Dec 2024
A feature of C. therophilus is a progressive flower opening over several weeks. With the lower flowers opening first and each successive flower/s opening then closing up the stem rather than a more complete group opening.
arjay
wrote:
23 Dec 2024
It is odd that it is so tall not that the flowers are not yet all out. It will be taller when the flowers are finished. And yes they do open successively. Most of them are down at the 300 mm height rather than double that and probably taller by the time it has finished flowering.
DerekC
wrote:
23 Dec 2024
Yes, 600mm is tall but the suggested height is 400 - 950mm and I know I have seen them that tall on Black Mountain in the ACT. The other thing about this genus to consider, besides seasonal changes/responses to growth, is its observed development over years, where individual plants increase in size each year as they develop and appear to, following some trigger, to put all their effort into a greater flowering followed by them then apparently exhausting. While this an explanation for the observed behavior I am not sure if this has been specifically studied or yet confirmed.
arjay
wrote:
23 Dec 2024
Well this is a new plant. A reasonable distance from the other therophilus here. And in a place that it would be very hard to miss when flowering. So I guess we can expect it to be even taller next year. Frightening thought.
Location information
- Maps Mongarlowe River
- Places Charleys Forest, NSW
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- arjay Recorded by
-
Collections
arjay Orchids Plants Significant Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr
Additional information
- 30cm to 1 metre Plant height
- True In flower
Species information
- Calochilus therophilus Scientific name
- Late Beard Orchid Common name
- Sensitive
- Rare or uncommon native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Machine learning
-
In flower
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
