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National

The weird and wonderful world of Australian orchids disguised as dragons, fairies and spiders

The dragon, fairy, spider and hammer are all different types of orchids and need to be seen to be believed.    

For centuries, orchids have fascinated biologists and botanists, including Charles Darwin on his famous Voyage of the Beagle in the 19th century.

The rise of social media has also led to a flood of orchid enthusiasts capturing the stunning plants loved for their striking and mesmerising features.

Western Australia is home to some of the world's most interesting orchids, such as the bird and spider varieties that flower in bushland across the state.

World-renowned biologist Stephen Hopper from the University of WA lives in Albany, on the state's south coast, a haven for wildflower enthusiasts.

Despite studying flora for decades, Professor Hopper, a former director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in London, said he was still amazed by the beautiful plants.

"They're so special, they combine the female bits and the male bits into a single structure, which is called a column," he said.

"The petals and sepals around that and form in this tremendous diversity of size, shapes and colours."

The beautiful flowers are by design to help the plant pollinate.

"They attract insects to come and pollinate the flowers, a small proportion even attract birds," Professor Hopper said.

'Wonderful, intricate mechanisms'

One of the most popular orchids is the bird orchid, shaped like its moniker.

"That's in a group called green hoods — or Pterostylis in Latin. They're about attracting midges," Professor Hopper said. 

"The tiny little flies go through an entrance into this chamber created by the petals and crawl around inside where the male and female bits of the orchid are, picking up and depositing pollen in the process.

"Then they have a translucent parts of the flower and the midges walk up towards the light and escape through another exit — its wonderful, intricate mechanism that, again, Charles Darwin featured in his books on orchids in the 1800s."

More orchids yet to be discovered

There are 25,000 to 30,000 known species of orchids on Earth but many still to be discovered.

"There are around 400 named ones in WA at the moment. It's estimated another 60-odd remain unnamed," Professor Hopper said.

"Orchids are found on all continents except Antarctica. [They are] very abundant in the tropics, but a whole suite of species in temperate areas as well."

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