Man's 'spectacular' beach find Aussies can go years without seeing
Most years only the orchid's leaf is visible, experts told Yahoo News.
A man has shared his joy after stumbling upon a “fabulous” scene that some Aussies could go decades without seeing. The Tasmanian resident made the amazing discovery this week growing out of the sand in bushland near what appears to be a beach.
A photo posted online shows dozens of delicate red flowers emerging from the ground, sporadically dotted as far as the eye can see.
“Hard to get around when there’s this many orchids,” the man posted online, explaining the sight was in fact “a fabulous ‘bushfire’ of fire orchids”.
Pyrorchis nigricans — also otherwise known as red beaks — are a “moderately common species of orchid across southern Australia”, Brian Quinn, Horticultural Botanist at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, told Yahoo News Australia.
In Tasmania, the natives can be found “mainly in coastal scrubby vegetation” along the state’s north coast and on the Tasman Peninsula, he said.
“It has a single large, oval green leaf and up to eight relatively large red and white flowers. It is commonly known as fire orchid as it usually only flowers in profusion following hot fires.”
Aussies can go years without seeing orchid flower
Dr Noushka Reiter, senior research scientist for the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, told Yahoo News they “are interesting due to their large numbers and spectacular flowers”.
Experts currently don’t know what pollinates these species or how long they live, she said.
Most years only the orchid’s leaf is visible, with flowers usually appearing post fire — but there is always an occasional one that does without, Dr Reiter explained.
Taxonomist and orchid expert Andrew Brown previously told the Australian Geographic that while fire orchids are quite common, people can go decades without seeing them flower.
“Most years they come up as these big leaves called ‘elephant’s ears’ colloquially,” he said. “Occasionally they’ll pop up one or two flowers, but most years it’s just the leaves. People can watch these colonies for years and years and not see a flowering plant.”
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