#onkaparinga

One of the hidden beauties of our native flora is the ground orchids. I have a few piccies of various orchids coming up as they are a favourite to spot :D

These are Sun Orchids and while not as plentiful as other orchids, these  come in an array of colours (I still haven’t set my eyes on the Giant Sun Orchid, but I will one day :D) The genus for these is Thelymitra (Wikipedia - scroll down for piccies). They are called Sun Orchids because they only open in the sun. On many a cloudy day I have stumbled across these all closed up and lamented the lack of sun. But today they were open and gorgeous :D

You’ll Never Know It’s Winter...

UNWOUND: Paloma Concierta 

Exhibition: 23 September - 28 October 2017

 Paloma Concierta draws on everyday repetitions, the psychology of participation, our relationship to imperfection, endurance and the beauty that is our human error.

Where: Sauerbier House, 21 Wearing St, Port Noarlunga.

The opening was launched with accidental participation, new music, and in collaboration with Ian Hamilton, Lisa Harms, Ngankiburka-mekauwe (Senior Woman-of-Water) Georgina Williams and others. Opening speaker  was Annabelle Collett.

Some more orchids :D

Top three are Donkey or Pansy orchids, Diuris genus. They are one of my favourite orchids :D

Four and Five are Spider Orchids. These are always fun to find. However there are sooo many species they are quite hard to identify. Genus is Caladenia.

The last two piccies are of Wax Lip Orchids, formerly Glossodia, but now classified in with the 350 species of Caladena. Apparently, there is only one Wax Lip Orchid native to South Australia, but I have to say that there was a hell of a lot of them out there today. They were everywhere :D

This is my last photo spam post :D I do have some fungi piccies as well, but nothing special.  I hope I haven’t driven you nuts with my naturalist tendencies :D

Nutty

Yes, I take photos of bugs as well :D

Top two photos took me a while to identify and I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think this is a non-native beetle introduced to battle a St John Wort infestation in Australia, hence its name of St John Wort Beetle, Wikipedia - Chrysolina quadrigemina. Pretty nonetheless :D

The two beetles on the moss are likely some type of Christmas Beetle, though I really don’t have much of a clue. They were flying around, which is what attracted my attention. They landed, I photographed them, and they disappeared into the moss together. Likely doing something like the two Wort beetles above :D

The ant caught our attention because it was huge. These ants are at least an inch long. I’m used to seeing big black ones like that as we’ve had several nests in the garden (we had to eradicate them once we had children, that and Hubby had been stung several times, not fun). But I had never seen a red one before. This is a Giant Red Bull Ant. And he knew he was being photographed. These ants are very, very aware of humans.