Outing Report - Sunday, 8 August 2021 Merritts Creek

Black Bootlace Orchid
(Erythrorchis cassythoides)

This weird-looking specimen is a Black Bootlace Orchid found on the Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club's August outing to the Merritts Creek area. 

This is a climbing orchid that grows on eucalypts, stumps and logs in near-coastal areas and nearby tablelands from central Queensland to southern coastal NSW. 

It’s a plant with no leaves at all. Its black bootlace-like stems come up from roots which are getting all the food the plant needs by being parasitic on soil fungi. 

It was first formally described by Richard Cunningham who sent a specimen and hand-written description to his brother Allan. He wrote that he had called the plant Dendrobium cassythoides, because on first impression it resembled the genus Cassytha, not only beings leafless and having short racemes of flowers, but in its peculiar bronze or japanned (black) pimply stems. In the 1980s it was changed to Erythrorchis cassythoides. The name Erythrorchis is derived from the Ancient Greek words erythros meaning "red" and orchis meaning "testicle" or "orchid".

The characteristic black, pimply stems

The flower (from a plant
in Perseverance Forest)

                                           

Acknowledgements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrorchis_cassythoides   
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/534400-Erythrorchis-cassythoides
http://toowoombaplants2008.blogspot.com/2011/09/black-bootlace-orchid.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrorchis

Photographs: F. Mangubhai

Fauna

Birds: Australian Wood Duck, Crested Pigeon, Straw-necked Ibis, Galah, Cockatiel, Rainbow Lorikeet, Musk Lorikeet, Pale-headed Rosella, Pheasant Coucal, Laughing Kookaburra, White-throated Treecreeper, Superb Fairy-wren, White-throated Gerygone, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Spotted Pardalote, Striated Pardalote, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Scarlet Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater, Grey-crowned Babbler, Golden Whistler, Grey Butcherbird, Pied Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Grey Fantail, Willie Wagtail, Torresian Crow.

Mammals: Probably Pale Field Rat (Rattus tunneyi) – burrows only.

Flora discussed or taken note of on the day (not a comprehensive list): * introduced species 

Grasses: Stout Bamboo Grass (Austrostipa ramosissima), Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra).

Orchids: Black Bootlace Orchid (Erythrorchis cassythoides). 

Shrubs: Coffee Bush (Breynia oblongifolia), *Lantana (Lantana camara).

Trees: Silver Wattle (Acacia nerifolia), Forest She-oak (Allocasuarina torulosa), Spotted Gum (Corymbia maculata), Grey Gum (Eucalyptus biturbinata), Narrow-leaved or Red Ironbark (Eucalyptus crebra), Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora), Tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys), Blackbutt (Eucalyptus piluralis), Sydney Blue Gum (Eucalyptus saligna), Native Cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis), Crow’s Ash (Flindersia australis), Scrub Wilga (Geijera salicifolia), Sandalwood (Santalum obtusifolium).