ORCHIDACEAE

Windswept Spider Orchid

Vulnerable 

0.05m - 0.16m (5-15cm) 

Flower single, usually dark red (occasionally paler) with darker red lines and black caudae on all the segments, labellum wholly maroon or white to cream with a maroon apex, calli dark reddish purple, collumn transluscent with reddish markings. 

Papery capsule 

A short sturdy spider orchid with dark reddish flowers, drooping perianth segments, and thick, densely glandular blackish caudae on all segments. 

Burnie; West Coast 

 

Tas. endemic. Windswept low heathland among dwarfed shrubs and sedges. 

Exposed; Moist; Windy 

Tender 

Clay; Loam; Sandy; Well-drained 

C. dienema. habitat has been reduced due to agricultural development , and the remainder subject to grazing. Not represented in reserves. 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.