Oh for some rain!

We have been mapping orchids since February and have been making good progress, finding most of the plants that were up last year. However this Spring has been so incredibly dry that the whole slope is parched and I am seriously worried about the chances of many flowers this year.

One of Lady orchids has already started flowering, with another in tight bud, but there is no real sign of the hybrid buds yet and the Monkey orchids are very small. Today I even found my first aborted Monkey orchid – where the leaves had completely withered away from the drought.

Here are some photos of the plants seen today: