Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Windswept Helmet Orchid.

Species Information 02:05

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is a critically endangered flowering plant native to Australia, in the state of Tasmania, specifically Macquarie Island in the far southwest Pacific. Its scientific name is Corybas dienemus and it was first described in 1993.

 

Description

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is a small orchid growing only about an inch and a half tall when flowering. They have a very short stem and grow just a single fleshy rounded leaf, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with a dark green upper-side and a pale silvery-green underside.

 

The Windswept Helmet Orchid grows just a single very unusual looking flower, with translucent green and purple-redish coloring, that is roughly an inch wide and an inch tall. The flower has a wide elongated upper sepal. Sepals are the outermost, generally green, petal-ish/leaf-ish structure, at where a flower meets its stalk. And in the case of the Windswept Helmet Orchid the upper sepal, the dorsal sepal grows over the top of the flower; this is the helmet that gives the plant their name. The orchid also grows two upward pointing lateral sepals which are very thin, wiry, kind of antenna looking structures, each roughly an inch in length. They are very strange looking, kind of snail-like, or alien. And oddly beautiful.

 

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is deciduous and they shed their single leaf each winter to conserve energy. They also have robust storage tubers among their underground root system that provide sustenance throughout the harsh winter, and provide energy for new growth in the Springtime.

 

In the Spring, in September and October, here in the southern hemisphere, new leaves emerge from underground. And then in late Spring, early Summer, individuals produce their single flower.

 

Reproduction

The Windswept Helmet Orchid reproduces both sexually and asexually. So sexually: the flowers are monoecious, having both male and female reproductive structures. Recent research suggests the flowers are pollinated by small fungus gnats believed to be attracted to the flower’s color and shape which may mimic the appearance of fungi or decaying organic material. And so these fungus gnat get a dusting of pollen which they then transfer to another individual, cross-pollinating. Following pollination, in late summer and autumn, this is January to April, the flower develops into a small, capsule fruit. And the usually low-lying plant rapidly grows a longer stalk, up to an additional 3 inches in height, lifting the seed capsule above the surrounding mosses and grass, to help facilitate seed distribution via wind dispersal.

 

The Windswept Helmet Orchid also reproduces asexually, cloning itself, producing small colonies of individuals that share identical genetics. This vegetative reproduction works like this: the base of the quote unquote mother will send out horizontal stems, runners, called stolons, at or just beneath the soil surface. Points along the stolon, grow new “daughter” tubers, thick nutrient storage roots, that then separate off and grow into a new independent plant. And while this does not ensure genetic diversity, vegetative reproduction does allow the Windswept Helmet Orchid to spread, increasing their overall population, extending its survival, and increasing the likelihood of potential sexual reproduction in the future. Some colonies of Windswept Helmet Orchid have persisted for multiple decades.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

A winter drowsing, an ancient patience with the long dark quiet,

A cold that softly holds the promise of a warming spring.

 

And then, invisibly at first, that stillness shifts

The wind rests, the snow thins,

The bog thaws,

And the brittle ice is soothed.

 

And the gears that govern the timeworn compromise

Between life and sleep and death, tick another notch.

 

And visibly now, the stillness shifts

The shearwater returns, the shadows shorten

The sea cow moans out her pup,

And new shoots push up through the softening soil

 

Today an empty slate

Tomorrow flecked with green

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is native to Australia’s Macquarie Island, a remote, far southerly island in the southwest Pacific Ocean, governed by the state of Tasmania, located roughly 1000 miles south of the mainland and 1000 miles north of Antarctica. This is a subantarctic tundra bioregion with a maritime climate of cool temperatures, regular precipitation, and very strong winds. 

 

Macquarie Island is only 20 miles long, and 3 miles wide and its landscape is rugged and rocky, with low-growing vegetation and a central plateau pocked by deep glacial valleys. This plateau rises about 1,300 feet above sea level, with steep cliffs at the coasts. And the Windswept Helmet Orchid is found on these lower coastal terraces, only 100ft above sea level in damp peat bogs with a water table close to the soil surface. 

 

The climate is very cool year-round. Summer highs average in the low 40s°F, winter lows in the teens. Annual precipitation averages approximately 40 inches, with rain or snow occurring roughly 300 days a year. Strong westerly winds are also consistent throughout the year.

 

Windswept Helmet Orchid shares their subantarctic island home with:

Brown Skua, Button Fern, Grey-Headed Albatross, Macquarie Cabbage, Antarctic Bedstraw, Tussock Grass, Southern Rockhopper Penguin, Macquarie Island Daisy, Antarctic Tern, Elephant Seal, King Penguin, Willowherb, Sooty Shearwater, Shield Fern, Wandering Albatross, Blue Petrel, Clubmoss, New Zealand Pennywort, Fur Seal, Alpine Water Fern, Buttercup, Northern Giant Petrel, Kelp Gull, Royal Penguin, Gentoo Penguin, Water Chickweed, Shore Stonecrop, and many many more.

 

Threats

Historically, human introduced invasive species have directly impacted the Windswept Helmet Orchid’s population as well as contributed to the general degradation of their habitat. Rabbits, brought to the island as a food source for humans over 200 years ago, rapidly multiplied and expanded. Their overgrazing affected plant populations throughout the island and their burrowing undermined the root systems of native vegetation which in turn accelerated erosion.

 

In the early 2000s the Australian and Tasmanian governments initiated an eradication program, to clear the island of rabbits, rats and mice, and in 2014, after 7 years of effort, the program is considered a huge success, clearing over 150,000 invasive rabbits and rodents. And there has been significant recovery of native vegetation, since; A 2024 Australian Department of Climate Change report comments: “With grazing pressures removed, the island is returning to its former lush, green glory.”

 

Today, the main threat to the Windswept Helmet Orchid is human-induced climate change. A 2015 study showed significant shifts in weather patterns on Macquarie Island since the 1970s. Key weather systems have moved southward, resulting in stronger, more frequent winds and an increase in the frequency and severity of cyclone storms. And so the island has seen an increase in annual precipitation, particularly in winter. But despite this increased rainfall, the windier weather is also increasing surface evaporation, especially in the summer. So overall the windier, drier conditions have resulted in a kind of drought. For example, from roughly 1995 to 2012, there was not enough water available to the native vegetation, resulting in significant noticeable mortality across plant species on Macquarie Island.

 

Conservation

Fortunately, the Windswept Helmet Orchid has been legally protected since 2009. Their entire habitat falls within the protected Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and World Heritage Area. Macquarie Island was first declared a protected wilderness in 1933.

 

Today, there is a small offsite cultivation program at the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens. There is a collection of seeds banked at the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre. And federal and local governments have active research and monitoring programs, tracking Windswept Helmet Orchid population health and habitat stability.

 

Nevertheless the Windswept Helmet Orchid has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2013 and their population is generally in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 8000 Windswept Helmet Orchid remain in the wild.

Citations 19:12

Information for today’s show about the Windswept Helmet Orchid was compiled from:

 

Bergstrom, D.M., Bricher, P.K., Raymond, B., Terauds, A., Doley, D., McGeoch, M.A., Whinam, J., Glen, M., Yuan, Z., Kiefer, K., Shaw, J.D., Bramely-Alves, J., Rudman, T., Mohammed, C., Lucieer, A., Visoiu, M., Jansen van Vuuren, B. and Ball, M.C. (2015), “Rapid collapse of a sub-Antarctic alpine ecosystem: the role of climate and pathogens.” Journal of Applied Ecology, v.52: 774-783. – https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12436

 

Clements, Mark & Jones, David. (2007). “A new species of Nematoceras and characterisation of N. dienemum (Orchidaceae), both from subantarctic Macquarie Island.” Telopea. v. 11. –  https://doi.org/10.7751/telopea20075739 

 

Cockel, C. 2013. Nematoceras dienemum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T44392794A44533262. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T44392794A44533262.en

 

de Lange, P.J. (2025). “Corybas dienemus Fact Sheet.” New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. – https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/corybas-dienemus/ 

 

Skotnicki, M. L., G. R. Copson, J. Doube, L. Gadd, J. M. Selkirk-Bell, and P. M. Selkirk. 2009. “Biology and population studies of two endemic Nematoceras (orchid) species on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.” Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 143 (2): 61-71. – https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/64591663

 

Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. (2007). Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project: Operational Plan for the Eradication of Rabbits and Rodents from Macquarie Island. Department of Tourism, Arts and the Environment. - https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/publications/eradication-rabbits-and-rodents-subantarctic-macquarie-island 

 

Threatened Species Section. “Listing Statement for Corybas dienemus (windswept helmet-orchid)”. Hobart: Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania, 2017 – https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Corybas%20dienemus%20listing%20statement.pdf

 

Threatened Species Section (2017). “Threatened Tasmanian Orchids Flora Recovery Plan”. Hobart: Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water & Environment, Tasmania – https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Accepted-Orchid-RP.pdf 

 

Visoiu, Micah. 2019. Flora Values Assessment and Monitoring Report - Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and World Heritage Area - March 2019. Nature Conservation Report 19/01. Hobart: Natural and Cultural Heritage Division, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. – https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Macquarie%20Island%20Vegetation%20Assessment%202019.pdf

 

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corybas_dienemus

 

For more information about Windswept Helmet Orchid conservation, please see the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service at https://parks.tas.gov.au.

Music 20:56

Pledge 26:34

I honor the lifeforce of the Windswept Helmet Orchid. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Windswept Helmet Orchid I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.