By Tanya Steele
A trained eye, patience and a careful step in native bushland areas in the Yarra Valley can reveal beautiful and unique flowering plants to the beholder.
Landcare volunteers and orchid society members united on Thursday 13 July to conduct their winter orchid survey of Coranderrk Bushland and Badger Wier.
Healesville Environmental Watch Inc (HEWI) and Mount Toolebewong and District Landcare (Mt T &Dlc) groups, along with members from the Australasian Native Orchid Society (ANOS) met at the native bushland to continue the patient and vital work of plant identification in the area.
Mount Toolebewong and District Landcare group treasurer volunteer Karen Garth said the group did some good spotting.
“We ended up seeing a number of orchids either flowering or in the beginning stages of growth,” she said.
Landcare groups monitor a number of sites around Healesville to log different species of native plants and how they are growing in the area.
Wendy Probert, one of the ANOS members was there to assist identify and confirm the orchid growth spots in the reserve.
“We started doing surveys regularly in that area last year, except the one in November which was cancelled due to rain,” she said.
“We are trying to do surveys every month to six weeks to see what is coming up.”
Coranderrk Bushland Reserve is a unique forested area set over 142 hectares and situated close to Healesville Sanctuary, it is managed by Zoos Victoria.
Graeme George who is a member of the Mt T &Dlc group and the Healesville Community Emergency Group (HCEG) sub-group for Bushfire management also attended the walk.
He said he also noticed the bird call of the White-throated Treecreeper while the group walked the land.
“It feeds on ants on the tree trunks and that’s about all the food available in some areas of burnt bushland,” he said.
Coranderrk is being rehabilitated by the zoo and occasionally planned burns are employed to help control the overgrowth of some plants.
The group met afterwards for lunch at Badger Weir for a quick lunch and some more surveying.
Ms Probert said the group were pleased with the patches of orchids they found on their survey.
“A new member of HEWI even found an extra colony area, which was good,” she said.
The groups target key times throughout the year to catch orchids coming up and flowering and ANOS members assist the local landcare groups with orchid identification.
“We went in April and timed this walk, not a lot of people are aware that orchids flower throughout the whole year,” Ms Probert said.
“I provide the orchid enthusiasm with a bit of knowledge, the idea is that the local people will become more knowledgeable and help care and keep an eye on things,” she said.
Ms Garth said that it is important to keep doing regular surveys
“If you don’t look, you don’t find,” she said.
Any residents interested in the environment and landcare are welcome to join their local groups.
“It’s all about partnerships and education, if we learn about our local environment we can learn how to care for it,” Ms Garth said.
“The more the merrier,” she said.
