In the 1978 South Australian Flora edited by J. Jessop, the Orchidaceae were written by J. Weber and R. Bates and illustrated by L. Dutkiewicz. Weber was a keen lumper of species (1) and consequently there were only 110 species listed by Weber and Bates. There were such unlikely combinations as Caladenia huegelii var reticulata and Thelymitra carnea var rubra. Weber had actually planned more of these 'lumpings' hoping to reduce the number of South Australian orchids to one hundred but was talked out of it by his junior partner.

By the time of the 1986 Flora of South Australia most of the lumping had been undone and the number of species rose to more than 130.

In 1990 Bates and Weber in Orchids of South Australia (the Pink Book) treated several undescribed orchids and took the number of species to more than 150. The illustrations in the pink book were done by amateur artist Erika Stonor and were therefore much improved on those of 1986.

In the 1993 census of South Australian plants Bates and Weber accepted 175 species and included such unlikely combinations as Burnettia nigricans for what had been Lyperanthus and is now Pyrorchis!

Bates in the 2005 census of South Australian Plants has 225 species of orchid including a few undescribed ones.

Since then twenty additional South Australian orchid species have been named by DL Jones and an additional fifty undescribed species have been recognised so that the latest CD of South Australian orchids put out by NOSSA in July 2007 has over 300 species.

1: Footnote; A lumper is a taxonomist who reduces the number of species and a splitter is one who increases the number of species. Using this definition the author would have been denounced as a lumper in 1985 and as a splitter in 2005; however my concept of species has never changed so the fact that the number of orchid species in SA has risen from 110 to 310 is a result of research both in the field and in the laboratory, thereby taking us closer to the truth and that is what Science is all about!