Julia Cooke

Three flying ducks on my office wall attract comments during video calls. Mine are a bit different to the avian wall trios which first gained popularity in the 1950s – because I have flying duck orchids! Read on to learn about the ecology of duck orchids, where my wall art came from, and the history of ceramic flying ducks.

The flying duck orchids on my wall are Caleana major which occur in eastern Australia, from Queensland to Tasmania. In the genus Caleana, there are two species that occur in eastern Australia (C. major and C. minor) and twelve species that occur in Western Australia (one species extends through South Australia into Victoria too). The flowers have evolved to resemble female sawflies and are pollinated by male sawflies which are attracted to the flowers thinking they have found a mate – this pollination strategy is described as sexual deception. In duck orchids, one petal, the ‘duck head’ is hinged, and when male insects land here, the head tucks under the wings with the aim that the trapped insect picks up or deposits pollen, depending on whether the flower has been visited before, or the insect has been previously trapped.

My orchid duck wall art arose because many years ago (about 2002?) I took a photo of three duck orchids (I can’t remember where now) growing and flowering in a row. My sister joked about their similarity to the flying ducks ornaments on walls, and so I gave her a large, framed version of the photo to hang up. Then, in 2017, I recorded a podcast for In Situ Science, with scientist and artist James O’Hanlon. We recorded the podcast in the field, chatting while we unsuccessfully searched for orchid ducks. I told James about the picture I gave my sister and he said “I might have to go home and make that, because that would be hilarious” (21:58 mins). James did make some, and I was very lucky to receive the first ever set. When in stock you can buy some here.

The original decorative ducks, mallards, were made by at the Beswick Factory, Stoke-on-Trent. There were five sizes available and they were priced to be affordable to the middle class. Other species of British birds were also produced including swans, kingfishers and swallows. The ducks were made from 1930 until 1973, and particularly popular post-war, and later appearing on television programmes. In 1974, Dr Who (Tom Baker) wore three ducks as lapel pins in the multi-episode The Power of Kroll storyline. A set of ducks appeared frequently on Coronation street in the home of character Hilda Ogden. I’ve never watched this show, but have learned that the middle duck was askew, and the ducks followed the character, when she moved in 1987. [With thanks to @MoataTamaira – I found much of this information on her blog].

It is always exciting to find a duck orchid, and I’ve never failed to get any walking companions to share my enthusiasm. Most recently that was my friend Lu and my parents when we found several flowers on Black Mountain in Canberra, in January 2022 .