This single clump had eleven stalks and eighteen spider orchids.
Spring in Western Australia’s southwest is the greatest wildflower show on earth.
All photos in this post were taken on September 16, 2016, within a few metres of one road, a little off the Stirling Range’s eastern end.
Both the above photos show the same clump of spider orchids.
Whatever time of year, on the sand plains around the Stirling Range some flowers are in bloom.
In Spring, their abundance and diversity are prodigious.
The current Spring is an especially good one.
Even if you were silly enough to drive along Gnowellen Road without stopping – or even slowing down – in September 2016 you would have had fleeting glimpses of literally thousands of spider orchids.
My beloved and I spent a couple of hours there, during which just one other car drove by.
A circa 70 minutes, mostly-sealed road drive from Albany, Gnowellen is unsealed, but a good, wide road – suitable for any vehicle.
It offers splendid views of the Stirling Range.
We saw umpteen thousand spider orchids, but just a single pair of this kind:
…and just a few examples of this petite and elegant orchid:
There were many other beautiful flowering plants…
…and lovely non-flowering things too:
Click here to learn about lichens.