Threatened orchids work

Date posted: 31 August 2016

Lately we've been working with Kildare College teacher, Paul Beltrame, and seven students from Kildare College (based at Holden Hill) on a bunch of work around threatened orchids from the Mount Lofty Ranges.

The talented students have undertaken a number of lab practical sessions in the past few months, successfully germinating some of the target species asymbiotically (without the fungus the plant typically requires to help it grow) and symbiotically (with fungus).

The group will soon visit the wild population of White beauty spider orchid (Caladenia argocalla) to help landowner David Kilpin hand-pollinate and monitor the population.

We had a fun day recently de-flasking plantlets of the endangered sandhill greenhood (Pterostylis arenicola) with the help of expert grower Les Nesbitt.

We trialled a couple of different treatments and the 40+ plants now reside in the new shadehouse at Adelaide Botanic Garden.

The seeds were collected from Grange Golf Course by the Native Orchid Society of South Australia (NOSSA) two years ago.

You'll be sure to hear more about the scope and success of our threatened orchids project in the months to come, so stay tuned!