The Spurred Helmet Orchid is endangered in Victoria. By Catherine Watson
IT WASN’T me who found the orchid in the Gurdies but I happened to have my phone handy so I took the photo. We knew it was an orchid but we were no experts so I uploaded it to iNaturalist for identification.
When I showed the photo to Marg Lee, our resident orchid expert, she got excited. “A Spurred Helmet Orchid! I haven’t seen one of those in here for 10 years or more.”
By that evening the orchid had been named on iNaturalist, and the identification confirmed by several orchid experts. It was then accepted as “Research Grade”.
Meanwhile I had learned that the Spurred Helmet Orchid is listed as Endangered in Victoria under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee and there were no previous iNaturalist listings from the Gurdies.
IT WASN’T me who found the orchid in the Gurdies but I happened to have my phone handy so I took the photo. We knew it was an orchid but we were no experts so I uploaded it to iNaturalist for identification.
When I showed the photo to Marg Lee, our resident orchid expert, she got excited. “A Spurred Helmet Orchid! I haven’t seen one of those in here for 10 years or more.”
By that evening the orchid had been named on iNaturalist, and the identification confirmed by several orchid experts. It was then accepted as “Research Grade”.
Meanwhile I had learned that the Spurred Helmet Orchid is listed as Endangered in Victoria under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee and there were no previous iNaturalist listings from the Gurdies.
I felt a faint stirring of undeserved pride. Even more so when I logged onto the new Western Port Woodlands project page on iNaturalist to find my photo there under Recent Sightings.
Two weeks later I saw it listed on the Australian Living Atlas. I was listed as photographer and the image was licensed for use through Creative Commons.
And there’s the beauty of iNaturalist. A complete greenhorn, who doesn’t know her mayfly orchids from her greenhoods, I am now a citizen scientist. It’s a great way to learn, with fellow observers identifying your observations.
Save Western Port Woodlands (SWPW) is on a mission to record the riches in the woodlands, and we can all help. So if you go down to the woods today … take your phone, with the iNaturalist app installed.
The recently released Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) for Bass Coast recognised the woodlands as being an area of “outstanding environmental significance” providing habitat for many threatened species. But it stated that further work was necessary “to identify and confirm if there are areas with high biodiversity value within the Western Port Woodlands to help conserve them and inform land use planning”.
Are you kidding us? Locals have been proving the biodiversity values of the woodlands for the past 30 years! But okay, okay, we’ll prove them again.
Two weeks later I saw it listed on the Australian Living Atlas. I was listed as photographer and the image was licensed for use through Creative Commons.
And there’s the beauty of iNaturalist. A complete greenhorn, who doesn’t know her mayfly orchids from her greenhoods, I am now a citizen scientist. It’s a great way to learn, with fellow observers identifying your observations.
Save Western Port Woodlands (SWPW) is on a mission to record the riches in the woodlands, and we can all help. So if you go down to the woods today … take your phone, with the iNaturalist app installed.
The recently released Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) for Bass Coast recognised the woodlands as being an area of “outstanding environmental significance” providing habitat for many threatened species. But it stated that further work was necessary “to identify and confirm if there are areas with high biodiversity value within the Western Port Woodlands to help conserve them and inform land use planning”.
Are you kidding us? Locals have been proving the biodiversity values of the woodlands for the past 30 years! But okay, okay, we’ll prove them again.
SWPW has established an expert biodiversity group to collate the extensive information we already have on the biodiversity values of the Woodlands, and to identify any key gaps. The expertise of this group shows how important the work is:
But our experts can’t be everywhere, which is where rank amateurs like me (and possibly you) come into the picture.
Dr Brendan Casey, our resident frog expert, has set up a project page on iNaturalist to record all biodata for the woodlands. The page will automatically pull in any observations made in the investigation area.
You don’t need to identify what you see, you just need to photograph it and upload it.
- Alison Oates – ecology and botany
- Annette Stewart - conservation systems
- Anne Looney – birds and orchids
- Brendan Casey - frogs and reptiles
- Christine Connelly - environmental science, Victoria University
- Dave & Jackie Newman – legendary wildlife guides and photographers
- David Nicholls - fauna, esp southern brown bandicoots
- Diana Whittington, co-ordinator environmental partnerships, Bass Coast Shire Council
- Dick Wettenhall - orchids and their pollinators
- Geoff Glare - flora (esp orchids) and fauna
- Jordan Crook, Environmental campaigner, VNPA
- Sera Blair, citizen science, VNPA
But our experts can’t be everywhere, which is where rank amateurs like me (and possibly you) come into the picture.
Dr Brendan Casey, our resident frog expert, has set up a project page on iNaturalist to record all biodata for the woodlands. The page will automatically pull in any observations made in the investigation area.
You don’t need to identify what you see, you just need to photograph it and upload it.
Have a look at our project page. It’s beautiful! Over 7000 observations are already recorded in the woodlands, with an incredible 1385 species. If that’s not biodiversity I don’t know what is.
You can look up Recent Observations, as well as the leading observers. Reiner has an incredible 1272 observations across 390 species, Bushbandit has recorded 430 species, and our own Ricardo Simao (pictured wearing his Save Western Port Woodlands T-shirt) has recorded 146 species.
iNaturalist is fairly user-friendly but we’ll be running a webinar in the next few weeks for those of you who are new to it.
Catherine Watson is a member of Save Western Port Woodlands.
You can look up Recent Observations, as well as the leading observers. Reiner has an incredible 1272 observations across 390 species, Bushbandit has recorded 430 species, and our own Ricardo Simao (pictured wearing his Save Western Port Woodlands T-shirt) has recorded 146 species.
iNaturalist is fairly user-friendly but we’ll be running a webinar in the next few weeks for those of you who are new to it.
Catherine Watson is a member of Save Western Port Woodlands.