- Thelymitra kangaloonica is a listed Critically Endangered sun-orchid (family Orchidaceae) with a highly restricted distribution. In recent years both individual abundance and capsule set rates have been low in this species. The flowers of Thelymitra kangaloonica possess some traits associated with autogamy (self-fertilisation) and others associated with entomophily (insect-pollination), however the pollination mechanisms have not been explicitly tested. This study compared the capsule set rate of flowers cross-pollinated by hand among individuals, against flowers which received no treatment. We found that capsule set rate in hand cross-pollinated flowers was significantly higher than in flowers receiving no treatment (23.1% versus 4.4%). This suggests that Thelymitra kangaloonica relies primarily on entomogamy to achieve seed set. Hand cross-pollination may assist management of the species by increasing the number of seeds in the soil seed bank and potentially assist in increasing the population size. In addition, it facilitates seed collection for seed banking and development of an ex-situ population for future population augmentation or translocation.
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