Shuffling down the side of the track on Te Mata Peak, past broken branches scattered by Cyclone Gabrielle, Mike Lusk points to a mass of green grass.
It takes a moment to see it: a green helmet-shaped flower with two whiskers protruding upward. It is well camouflaged, and if Lusk hadn’t pointed it out I would have gone straight past.
As a volunteer for the track and an enthusiast for orchids, Lusk is familiar with every orchid on the trail, whether in flower or not. He scrambles down the bank easily, despite his 76 years, pulling out wilding pines along the way, and has no problem kneeling to point out the flower.
He says getting close to the ground is the only way to see them.
“If I point them out to someone and they don’t get down on hands and knees to see them, I know they are not really interested in orchids,” he says.
These greenhoods are pollinated by fungus
