Orchids


There are about 30,000 species of orchid worldwide making Orchidaceae the largest family of flowering plants. They are found in a diverse range of habitats.

Orchids have distinctive flowers, consisting of three sepals and three petals. The third petal is greatly modified into a specialised structure known as a labellum. Another distinctive feature is the column, a fusion of the sexual parts of the flower (stamens and style) into a fleshy structure. Most terrestrial orchids grow from a tuber which is replaced each year.

Some orchids are designated as rare and endangered plants. Others, although reasonably common, are very localised in their occurence. All orchids are protected species and should not be disturbed in their native habitat. For these reasons all orchids have been included as rare or sensitive plants.


Orchids

Announcements

1 hr ago

In light of recent budgetary impacts to NatureMapr, our team has conducted an audit of platform functionality, to identify redundant or seldom used areas of the platform that can be consolidated or de...


Continue reading

Improvements to Search

NatureMapr 2025 partner update presented to Commonwealth DCCEEW

New feature: special fields for collections

Temporary disruption to attributes

Discussion

Tapirlord wrote:
13 min ago
Nice sighting!! For Thelymitra we need to see a clearer picture of the flower for a chance at species level ID. Features of the leaf are often useful as well.

Thelymitra (Genus)
24 Jun 2025
Hi wightsnowy, thanks for your sighting. It looks like the location information you provided is incorrect. This can occur if the GPS sensor in your device was having a bad day. Please review and update the location of this record when you get a chance.
Also the location of sensitive species such as this orchid are not publicly provided and only the reporter, moderators and trusted land managers can see the location

Caladenia actensis
Tapirlord wrote:
20 Jun 2025
I have had this confirmed as true P.keltonii

Paraprasophyllum canaliculatum
Jennybach wrote:
16 Jun 2025
Fantastic. I only just touched on this place….so much to look at and photograph that I only covered about a tenth of the trail in over an hour.

Acianthus sp.
Clarel wrote:
16 Jun 2025
Acianthus fornicatus (Pixie-caps)

You were a bit unlucky, I photographed these early ones less than a month ago. They are growing in lots of areas at different stages of flowering. This reserve is great to visit for orchids, something is always in flower.

Acianthus sp.
827,694 sightings of 22,689 species from 14,284 members
CCA 3.0 | privacy
NatureMapr is developed by at3am IT Pty Ltd and is proudly Australian made