The Christmas Hills Landcare Group engaged the services of Dr Dean Rouse to search for 11 target orchid species on 28 private properties in 2014.
In September 2013, Gary Backhouse (co-author The Orchids of Victoria) presented to the group on the “Orchids of Christmas Hills”.
Following this, Gary indicated to the CHLG that, based on suitable habitat and known occurrences nearby, he believes there are two FFG-listed (also EPBC-listed) species of orchid, and another 5 orchid species listed in the DSE Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants in Victoria (2005), that have a realistic chance of occurring on private land in Christmas Hills. The species are: Caladenia rosella, C. amoena, C. oenochila, Corybas fimbriatus, Prasophyllum pyriforme, Pterostylis striata, and Pt. smaragdyna.
As a result this project was formulated, and funding sought from the Victorian Landcare Program via the PPWCMA Community Grants program.
The project aimed to detect and record the locations of any new populations of one or more of the identified target species on 28 private properties for which the landholders had submitted an EoI granting permission for an orchid expert to come onto their property to survey for orchids during 2014.
The CHLG engaged the services of Dr Dean Rouse, a skilled and respected orchid expert, to search for the target orchid species on 28 properties covering 461 hectares.
Following initial discussions with Dr Rouse, the list of target species to search for was expanded to 11 species:
Caladenia amoena                  Corybas fimbriatus
Caladenia concolor                 Prasophyllum pyriforme
Caladenia flavovirens             Pterostylis biseta
Caladenia oenochila               Pterostylis smaragdyna
Caladenia rosella                    Pterostylis striata
Calochilus therophilus
The searching was conducted during 2014 over four separate periods during 2014 - June; August/September; October; and November, based on Dr Rouse’s knowledge of each species’ flowering times and preferred habitat to optimise efficient use of time and likelihood of discovery.
Dr Rouse searched for evidence of the presence of the target orchid species by traversing on foot all areas of each species’ preferred habitat on each of the properties listed below.
Dr Rouse also recorded the names of all species of orchids observed incidentally whilst searching for the target species on each property so that an individual species list for each property could be provided to each participating landholder.
The final report is available at https://www.landcarevic.org.au/assets/Uploads/GroupPage/08e52b77-a149-42cb-895d-963e32617568chlg-rare-orchid-search-2014-full-report-final-compressed.pdf