Tag: Arachnorchis brumalis
November 2015 Winning Photograph
November’s theme was hybrids. Orchids, more than any other plant family, are likely to produce natural hybrids. Even though the overall occurrence of natural hybridisation in orchids is low, it occurs often enough to make some species identification challenging.
Hybrids mainly occur between species of the same genera such as Jenny Pauley’s Arachnorchis brumalis x A. conferta
but, less commonly, it can occur between genera as seen with Pauline Meyer’s Caladenia latifolia x A. brumalis
and her Western Australian photograph of Caladenia x enigma; a hybrid between C. falcata and Drakonorchis barbarossa.
Jones (2006) states that “Natural hybrids are more common in some genera, such as Arachnorchis, Caladenia and Diuris, than in others.” To this list could be added Thelymitra as seen with both of the winning pictures T. x truncata and T. x irregularis. Interestingly with these two hybrids, the parents are not always the same; the parents for T. irregularis could be T. ixiodies or T. juncifolia with either T. carnea or T. rubra.
x irregularis
A similar situation occurs with T. truncata with the parents consisting of T. juncifolia and any member of the T. pauciflora (including T. albiflora, T. arenaria, T. bracteata, T. brevifolia, T. cyanapicata, T. pauciflora) or of the T. nuda complex.
x truncata
The conditions necessary for hybridisation are that the parents must grow in the same area, have overlapping flowering time and share the pollinator. Brown et al (2103) make the additional observation – Hybrids are more common between wasp and bee-pollinated species than between two wasp-pollinated species or two bee-pollinated species. … However, rare hybrids between species using the same pollination strategies, do occasionally occur …
Obviously hybridisation is more likely to occur when there is an abundance of the parent species. This situation can occur when there is mass flowering following fires or good seasonal rains. Site disturbances either through natural causes or clearing can result in increased incidence of hybridisation.
Hybrids are often infertile and will only last for the life of the individual plant but some have the ability to reproduce vegetatively and, provided the conditions remain favourable, may persist for several years.
One situation that can occur is hybrid swarm. When these occur they can make orchid identification challenging. Hybrids share the characteristic of both parents and by careful observation this can be deduced but swarms introduce an added complexity because the hybrid can backcross with either of the parents or cross fertilise with themselves. The result is a wide range of variation which makes orchid identification difficult.
Finally, some orchids will not hybridise even though the conditions are right. This could be due to specific pollinator or possibly chemical or genetic barriers.
References:
Brown et al (2013) Field Guide to the Orchids of Western Australia, Floreat, WA, Simon Nevill Publications
Jeans, Jeffrey & Backhouse, Gary (2006) Wild Orchids of Victoria, Seaford Vic, Aquatic Photographics
Jones, David (1988) Native Orchids of Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW, Reed Books
Jones, David (2006) A Complete Guide to Native Orchids of Australia including the Islands and Territories, Frenchs Forest, NSW, Reed New Holland
Introduction to Australian Orchidaceae CD-ROM
https://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/cd-keys/orchidkey/html/intro-c_hybrid.html accessed 7th December 2015
Bates, Robert (2011) South Australia’s Native Orchids NOSSA DVD Adelaide
Spotted Pink Sun Orchid – Beautiful, but Only a Hybrid
https://nossa.org.au/2014/09/26/thelymitra-x-irregularis-beautiful-but-only-a-hybrid/ accessed 7th December 2015
2014 November Photograph Competition Part 1
With a theme of Orchids and Insects for the November meeting it was hoped that there would be some entries with pollinators and therefore there would be two categories Insect Visitors and Pollinators. This month’s article will feature the Pollinator section and Insect Visitors in the next month.
In all there were four potential pollinator photographs. The insects were either scrounging around at the base of the column or else they had the pollinia attached to them. Unfortunately only one was a true pollinator so the category became Insects with Pollinia. The winning photograph of Arachnorchis brumalis with an unidentified hoverfly was taken by Chris Davey. Interestingly the other two pictures also featured Arachnorchis species with the hover fly Simosyrphus grandicornis. Resembling a wasp but minus the sting, this species is one of the common hover flies native to Australia.
Called Hover Flies owing to their ability to hover motionless in one spot, they are also known as Flower Flies because they are often found hovering around as well as pollinating flowers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find them around orchids. Yet instead of being called pollinators they are non-pollinators (Bates & Weber 1990). They visit the orchids, forage inside the flower and may even manage to collect some pollinia₁ but that is all. They may not necessarily visit another flower of the same species but if they do, they will fail to deliver the pollinia to the stigma2.
Rudie Kuiter agrees with Bates that hover flies are not orchid pollinators but just when we think we have worked it out he adds “but we have at least one orchid in Victoria that is pollinated by hoverflies and witnessed now several times and this is Caladenia catenata” (synonym Petalochilus catenatus). Notwithstanding the case for this species, it would appear that in most cases hoverflies remove pollinia so that it is not available to a more specific pollinator.
Why then are the hover flies attracted to the orchids? Is it for food? An internet image search revealed that hover flies visit the flowers of many different genera including Thelymitra and Diuris. This is interesting because flowers are the food source for hover flies but though many orchids promise food, many species do not produce the nectar and pollen (as a food source) that they desire. Diuris and Thelymitra belong to this group of non-nectar producing flower. Other orchids that don’t produce nectar include Gastrodia, Dipodium and the Duck orchids. Again, there are orchids such as Crytostylis which produce minimal nectar and with Prasophyllum the nectar is hidden in cells that require puncturing – not a good food source!
Having discussed hover flies as non-pollinators, in this month’s competition, which photograph had a pollinator? – It came last and was Robert Lawrence’s photograph of a native bee on a Dipodium pardalinum, another non-nectar producing orchid. The story of this photograph was featured in Photographing Orchid Pollinators, April 2014 Journal as well as in a previous blog on Photographing Pollinators.
References:
Smith James, Information Centre, South Australian Museum, personal communications
Kuiter Rudie personal communications
Bates and Weber, Orchids of South Australia, 1990
Australian Museum, http://australianmuseum.net.au/Hover-flies Accessed 4th December 2014
Brown, et al, Field Guide to the Orchids of Western Australia, 2013
Jones, Native Orchids of Australia Including the Island Territories, 2006
Bates, South Australia’s Native Orchids 2011 DVD-ROM
Martin, The Vocabulary of Orchids: An Amateur’s Perspective, 2005
1Pollinia is basically a coherent compact mass of pollen that allows the pollen to be transported as a single unit
2The stigma is a sticky depression (or swelling) at the front of the column, the receiving surface for the pollinia that is necessary for germination.
NOSSA 