Fairy Lanterns

This is a very special little plant, that I have hoped to find for a long long time. I attended a conference in Hobart, Tasmania in Octob...Read Moreer 2014 and one speaker gave a presentation on this plant. He has found that it is not nearly as rare as was thought, it is just incredibly difficult to find. It grows in deep shade, in deep leaf litter and the flower is often actually hidden in the leaf litter. The flower is all that one ever sees above ground. It has no leaves or green stems and so no chlorophyll. It lives like a fungus by breaking up rotting plant material in the surface of the soil. The flower is only 2cm tall and if it is showing at all, most of the 2cm will be within the leaf litter. The speaker had brought a few plants that he had collected in SE Tasmania and I was thrilled to be able to see them at last, and to get some photographs. My hope now is that I learned enough to find the plants myself here in Victoria, where they are also known to grow.