Henry Somerset Orchid Conservation Reserve

Australia’s only orchid reserve, this site is renowned for the diversity of native terrestrial orchids. Some of the orchids are listed as rare and endangered species. Some are not only endemic to the state of Tasmania, but to the local area.

Take Railton Rd (B13) about five minutes’ drive south from Latrobe.
The walk takes approximately 30 minutes. The reserve does not have any public facilities and there are no entry fees to pay.

Some 43 species have been recorded within the reserve, varying from the tall 60cm tall Hyacinth orchid Dipodium roseum, a leafless saprophyte that appears annually in early summer, to the tiny 2cm Winter Helmet orchids Corybas species.

Recent taxonomic review into the Genus Caladenia by the Centre for Plant Biodiversity, Australian National Botanical Gardens in Canberra, has resulted in the discovery of a new species, Robust Finger orchid, Petalochilus tonellii, named after the reserve founder and Hon. Warden Peter Tonelli.