The Button Plant 
Often called the Button Orchid, but is not an orchid, Dischidia nummularia.  This wonderful plant is a trailing-scandent epiphyte which means it does not require its roots to be in soil, it obtains its sustenance from the air. A root climber that grows on the flakey bark of branches of Melaleucas and other trees of the swamp and along streams, the long trailing stems can be seen all through Cooktown Botanic Gardens festooned from the weeping paperbark trees.

Button plant because the leaves are rounded buttons, (nummullaria = like a coin) and thick and succulent.

Strangely, as this plant is often found growing with our Myrmecodia beccari, the Ant House Plant, which houses a particular species of ant, there was a reference to the Button plant as “myrmecophilous or ant-loving plants, several Dischidias are particularly intriguing. Ants inhabit the inflated, often hollow leaves, using them as nurseries for their young and as garbage dumps. The plants benefit from the ants' carbon dioxide and waste products”.  Further research is needed!

The tiny white flowers appear in spring or summer.

Propagate from stem cuttings, division or seed. Needs shade or it loses its colour. It can be grown as a hanging basket or pot, or on moss or bark. It likes bright light but not direct sun over the plant. The mix needs to be kept moderately dry between waterings, misting the plant once or twice a week should do the job. Liquid feeding once a month with half strength is adequate.

This plant was painted by Vera Scarth-Johnson and collected by Banks and Solander in 1770 when they came on the Endeavour, painted by Sydney Parkinson and is one of the 15 that now belong to Cooktown, courtesy of the Cooktown Discovery Festival and Cook Shire Council and RADF. and part of the Banks Florilegium exhibition at Natures Powerhouse from June until the end of August.