Esperance and most of WA is known for the beautiful wild flowers that appear at certain times of the years.
In Esperance they mostly appear around September, but I’ve noticed a few early ones alongside the roads.
This orchid is usually a shy flower that hides itself away from prying eyes!
You have to look carefully to find it, usually growing around the mossy granite outcrops and on the banks of the few river systems that run through Esperance.
It seems to like the cool, moist and sheltered conditions that these areas provide.
This one caught my eye, just as I was about to turn onto the main road, in full view of everybody and far from any shade or water!
Fleur, it’s quite like the Donkey Orchids I get here (NSW), but they aren’t out yet. The markings on yours look more reddish than purplish-brown (as in my orchid book) or otherwise I’d have guessed at the Common Donkey Orchid which does occur in WA too.
Apparently you have three other Donkey-type yellow Diuris orchids peculiar to the coastal SW of WA, including one called the Nannygoat Orchid!
Aren’t wild orchids a surprising gift each year?
I just love them Sharyn – we’ve also got a ‘spider orchid’ which has longer ‘tentacle’s from the middle of the flower (sorry I don’t know the correct name and I don’t have an orchid book to check) but they are an even deeper purple and as small. I couldn’t believe I found this one growing in gravel – a rather foreign environment for it