Orchids of Tasmania

Identification tool to the native orchids of Tasmania

About this version

This is a completely new edition of the Orchids of Tasmania app. It was rebuilt to work on modern devices and to reflect ongoing changes in the names and classification of Tasmanian orchids. The app looks and functions differently from the previous version as it now runs on the LUCID® platform.

Dedication

This app is dedicated to Hans & Annie Wapstra for their more than 50 years of pioneering work on Tasmanian native orchids — surveying, describing new species, and co-authoring the publication The Orchids of Tasmania in 1999.

Acknowledgements

The primary authors of this version are Malcolm Wells and Mark Wapstra. However, it was not undertaken alone. Numerous people have contributed to the development of this app (and the original version). The original app was developed by Malcolm Wells and Bill Higham (who has also contributed to this version).

We also acknowledge the major contribution by Phil Collier, particularly in developing the key to Thelymitra (and many other genera). Eddie Gall, Jill & Neale Colgrave and James Wapstra gave invaluable editing support during development. Staff of the Tasmanian Herbarium are also thanked for their long commitment and support for projects such as this one, providing free and ready access to their collection.

The authors have worked to make the app available for general use at no cost and are grateful for additional financial support provided by Annie Wapstra, as a legacy to her husband Hans, who would probably have preferred a hard-copy field guide but was slowly coming around to new technology. Eddie Gall, Ruth Bucher, Jill & Neale Colgrave, Annabel & Geoff Carle, and the Forest Practices Authority provided significant funding to the project.

We are particularly grateful to photographers who have generously supplied images for this app (and the previous version). Contributing photographers for this version (in alphabetical order) are: Gary Backhouse, Bruno Bell, Craig Broadfield, Terry Butler, Annabel & Geoff Carle, Mark Clements, Jill & Neale Colgrave, Phil Collier, Janine Cranney, Laurie Davison, Andrew Dilley, Peter Fehre, Adam Fry, Eddie Gall, Graham Green, Roger Hay, Beth Heap, Afton Johnston, Robert Lindhe, Rudie Kuiter, Leysha Perkins, Gail Pollard, Colin & Mischa Rowan, Les Rubenach, Leysha Perkins, Garth Smith, Keren Smithies, Alan Stephenson, Natalie Tapson, Peter Tonelli, Brendan Turriff, Bob & Penny Tyson, Hans & Annie Wapstra and Barbara Wells. The Wapstra family received a bequest of the slide collection of the late Les Rubenach. This bequest gave kind permission for the continued non-commercial use.

We are also grateful to David Jones for his generous permission to use the text, in part or sometimes virtually unchanged, and line drawings from The Orchids of Tasmania (Jones et al. 1999), A Complete Guide to Native Orchids of Australia, Revised Third Edition (Jones 2024) and other papers/books by him. We acknowledge a lifetime of observation, skill and labour that went into these.

Several people assisted with the app development in lots of other different ways including beta testing, scanning of documents, editing and review: we especially thank Annabel & Geoff Carle, Eddie Gall, Jill & Neale Colgrave, Phil Collier, Robin Garnett, James Wapstra, Lorilee Yeates, and Annie Wapstra.

And last but not least, our sincere thanks to the Western Australian Native Orchid Study & Conservation Group (WANOSCG), in particular Ramón Newman and Andrew Brown, for their generous advice in early stages of development based on the format of the Key to Native Orchids of Western Australia app.