Helmet orchid
Corybas barbarae
This tiny ground orchid is hard to spot, and was only discovered on the Island in the 1980’s by a visiting amateur orchid enthusiast from Adelaide. It is a dwarf ground orchid with a single, heart-shaped leaf which is only present between March and September.
It produces one white flower, streaked with purple, from May to June. Once fertilised, the flower ovary swells to form a seed pod. Several weeks later, the stalk elongates to 12cm, allowing the seed pod to float high up in the air before splitting longitudinally to release tiny seeds.
It is only known locally from a single small colony on the ridge between Malabar and Kim’s Lookout. This species is also found in coastal NSW and southern Queensland. It comes from a genus of 100 species also found in northern India, southern China, Malaya, Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia (with a total of 20 species).
Orchid for April
