Spring Wildflowers (6)

This will be the last in this series, mostly because I'm heading off to Ecuador next week, and won't be back until early summer. For posting number 5 see here; further links to earlier ones can be found there. The main orchid season is winding down around Canberra, though there are still some nice ones around (and some still to come).

Mountain Beard Orchid, Calochilus montanus, Black Mountain.
A striking and and uncommon orchid which may also be found in the ranges, up to about 1000 metres above sea level.

A much commoner one is the Slender Sun Orchid; last time I featured a rare pink version, but here's the 'standard' form.

Thelymitra pauciflora, Black Mountain.

Another uncommon one locally is a widespread shrub, Kangaroo Apple; the flowers tell us immediately that it is closely related to tomatoes, potatoes etc in the family Solanaceae.

Solanum linearifolium, Black Mountain.

The rest of today's feature plants are all yellow, starting with two species of Guinea Flower.

Hibbertia calycina above, and H. obtusifolia below.
The flowers are almost identical, but the leaves are very different.
The genus was named for George Hibbert, a London merchant and anti-slavery MP who lived from 1757 to 1837.
He had a private botanic garden at Chelsea, where he was one of the first to grow Australian plants, though his chief passion was for South Africa where he maintained his own private collector for five years.
Henry Charles Andrews, who named the genus in 1800, described him as "one whose knowledge and fervour in botanical pursuits, as well as liberality in his endeavours to enrich our collections, from every quarter of the globe .... has not been exceeded by any".
Other sources suggest that this might contain a modicum of hyperbole.

Finally Ivy Goodenia is an attractive little ground cover which can be found from local forests to the high mountains. The person it was named for - the Reverend Samuel Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle - warrants his own story, and I shall oblige in due course.

Goodenia hederacea, Black Mountain.