Chris Davey, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Most of you may know me through my work in agronomy and agriculture on Yorke Peninsula.

However, beyond my professional role, I have a deep passion for conserving our region’s native orchids.

Through this semi-regular column, I hope to share insights into the beauty and rarity of our local orchids — some of which are found nowhere else.

Four species exist only on YP and are classified as endangered, with fewer than 100 plants remaining.

Protecting them before they disappear forever is vital.

When people hear “orchid”, many think of a flower, maybe 10 to 12 centimetres in diameter, bright and colourful, and pinned to a suit or tied to a wrist for a formal occasion.

But native orchids are quite different. Many have flowers as small as 10 to 12 millimetres (or smaller), making them easy to overlook.

Most species grow just 10 to 20 centimetres above the ground, blending into their surroundings.

As autumn sets in, two main species — Parsons Band and Midge Orchids — are blooming in our region’s remnant mallee scrub and conservation parks; they often go unnoticed by even the most avid nature lovers.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing drought, they are flowering in lower numbers than usual.

Bizarrely, Parsons Band flowers first and then produces a leaf after flowering, an oddity in the botany world.

Midge Orchids have a thin leaf from which a bunch of tiny flowers emerges. They are generally yellow to pale green, though a rare variety on southern YP is a deep maroon red.

I look forward to sharing more about our incredible orchids as the season progresses.

Thank you to the YP Country Times for helping promote these delicate and rare plants — by increasing awareness, we can all play a role in conserving them.

This article appeared Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 8 April 2025.