Tuesday October 7 2025

[Man From Ironbark]

Pretty Flanders Poppy and FOOD.  Nice work Dave.
This small orchid is called the large-lipped rusty hood. Belongs to the Pterostylis: Greenhood orchids. They trap insects to gain pollination then release them.

The insect then enters the flower and either because it has passed a balance point, or because it has touched a sensitive part of the labellum, the labellum moves forward trapping the insect between the column wings, the labellum and other flower parts. Observation of the insect's reaction to entrapment is difficult to observe, but in its struggle to escape, it either deposits pollinia from a previously visited flower or contacts the sticky viscidium and pollinia are attached, then carried to another flower. The features of an actively-moving labellum, along with the galea, are unique to these orchids.