At the top of Paluma Range, as you enter the village of Paluma, there is a park.

It was the site of a WW2 radar observation post and is so signposted.

The elevation is about 3000 feet, and it is a place of mists and clouds, mosses and lichens and orchids in the trees.

Dendrobium adae grows in the park trees, easily seen, and in the higher branches, Dendrobium ruppianum also thrives, along with Bulbophyllum johnsonii.

It is National Park.

A track leads away from the park, to the lookout, where the rainforest gives way to more open Casuarina and Banksia forested steep slopes.

In the trees here, grow Bulbophyllums, Phreatia crassiuscula, Dendrobiums agrostophyllum, adae and ruppianum, which usually flower late August to early September.

In among the grasses and rocks, May to June, flower some of the terrestrials. The heart shaped, green on top, purple underneath Acianthus leaf sits 3 or 4 inches high, with its erect spike of little green mosquito like flowers above the grass and leaf litter.

Along the edge of the track, where disturbance has created sunlight patches, grow the greenhoods, their unusual green, tipped orange, flowers standing up as though at attention, Pterostylis hildeae.

A great spot to visit, to see, appreciate and take away memories and perhaps photographs and leave everything else there for the next time. Click Paluma Sun Orchids
Sun Orchids