A new orchid species spotted

This Dark-tipped Greenhood, Pterostylis atrans, was spotted earlier this year and is only the second known record in the Bend of Islands Environmental Living Zone (ELZ). It is less than 100 metres east of the Co-op boundary, so can be considered 'in the Co-op zone'.

The plant was 260mm tall and the second plant had flowered by the 1st of April.

Previously observations of this orchid were in May 2009 when a single flowering plant was found off the side of Henley Rd, near Gongflers Drive (no other plants have been found at this site despite detailed annual follow-up) and in April 2020 when Dylan Osler found a couple of plants at the Yering Gorge Bushland Reserve, just to the east of the MW Pumping Station, so, close to, but out of, the ELZ.

It's remarkable that after over 50 years of fairly intensive recording of orchids on the Co-op, new species are still being found.

See the iNaturalist records here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/344816775