RARE ORCHIDS BLOOM
There’s a very funny but poignant moment in the 1993 movie Dennis the Menace when the Walter Matthau character, Mr Wilson, invites people to view the opening of his treasured night-flowering cactus. It doesn’t go well, although the flower opens beautifully.
The curators of two indigenous orchids are hoping for a smoother event this coming week when Tassie gardeners are invited to see the first blooms on two rare species of Tasmanian orchids at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. Leave all potential Menaces at home just in case!
The orchids are on show from Tuesday October 22 to Thursday October 24 from 10am to midday at the Visitor Hub. They are the romantically named wind-swept spiderorchid (Caladenia dienema) and its more prosaically named close relation, the robust fingers orchid (C. tonellii). Both are endangered species, each with less than 250 plants known in the wild. Until now, neither has been grown and flowered successfully in cultivation.
Tasmania has 71 endemic species of orchid with 39 of them threatened. These two orchids have complex and highly specialised interactions with both pollinating agents such as wasps, and also soil fungi, which provide nutrients to the plant.
Quiz answers: 1. United States 2. Euro 3. 30 Rock 4. Two 5. Dopey, Happy 6. Andaman Sea 7. Pink Floyd 8. Sydney Pollack 9. True 10. Chile, Argentina 11. Western Australia, South Australia 12. Germaine Greer 13. Cast Away 14. Donald Bradman 15. United States 16. Italy 17. Marise Payne 18. Elton John 19. Lake Victoria 20. Curium 21. Layne Beachley 22. Violin 23. 5 Seconds of Summer 24. Asuka 25. 2015 26. Atlanta 27. Northern 28.South Korea 29. V-Bucks 30. Japan
Target Word answers: ELSEWHERE, ewer, hewer, resew, sewer, shrew, slew, weer, were, whee, wheel, wheeler, where.