MALI: Volunteers are helping to protect and propagate extremely rare sandhill greenhood and blue top sun orchids in woodlands near Adelaide.
The sandhill greenhood orchids were located in woodland on the Grange Golf Course.
Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges species ecologist Jason Van Weenen said there were only three populations of the plants known in the state.
“They’re considered nationally as vulnerable and in the Adelaide Mount Lofty region they are critically endangered,” Mr Van Weenen said.
In South Australia, there are about 260 species of orchids, but this type is found only at Tailem Bend, the Lower Lakes and Grange.
“Many people may pass a whole variety of our [native] orchids while walking on a bush track and not pick up on them,” he said.
Native Orchid Society and Threatened Plant Action Group volunteers are helping to nurture the plants back to sustainable levels.
“Annual weeding around the population is really paying off,” Mr Van Weenen said.
“It is very hard to get quick recovery overnight, but this site has been worked on for over a decade.”
The plant population has risen from fewer than 100 to more than 1,200.
