Three small orchid plants push one leaf each up into the crisp morning air.

These are the only remaining individual specimens in the wild population of the Yellow-lip Spider-orchids (Caladenia xanthochila) in the whole Loddon Mallee Region in Victoria.

Their numbers will swell to 103 by the end of the day.

After ten years of trial and error in cultivation, today is the day when conservation volunteers will reintroduce 100 of the delicate orchids into the earth with the hope that the tiny plants will make it through the coming summer and go on make a sustainable population of one of Australia’s rarest plants.