ORCHIDACEAE

Heart-lip Spider Orchid

Extinct 

0.12m - 0.25m (12-25cm) 

Flowers 1-2, greenish pink to reddish with red stripes, labellum cream with reddish margins and dark maroon apex, calli purple black and shiny, column green with red markings. Flowers august to november on the mainland. 

Papery capsule 

Leaf broadly linear, sparsely hairy. Scape slender and wiry, sparsely hairy. 

Flinders Island 

Coastal Vegetation 

From imprecise location on Flinders Is, mainland species occurs in heathland, heathy woodland, open forest and mallee scrub. 

Dry; Exposed; Exposed; Moist; Shady; Windy 

Moderate 

Loam; Poorly-drained; Sandy; Well-drained 

Pollinated by the Thynnine Wasp Phymatothynnus victor. Occurs in habitats with varying fire frequencies. C. cardiochila. is presumed extint in Tasmania. Suitable below powerlines. 

 

Standard 

 

 

Orchid seeds are very minute yellow, brown or blackish dust-like particles. Orchid seeds are produced within a capsule that splits at maturity and releases tousands to millions of seeds. Dispersed by wind and water and only germinate following infection of the embryo by a suitable mycorrhizal fungus. Very few seeds become mature plants. For more information see Jones, Wapstra, Tonelli, Harris (1999): The Orchids of Tasmania.