ORCHIDACEAE

Dusky Caladenia (orchid)

 

0.05m - 0.12m (5-12cm) 

Flower single, white to pink internally, the exterior darker and heavily glandular, often with a prominant broad, darker central stripe, labellum white to pink with red bars, mid-lobe cream to yellowish, calli yellow, column greenish with narrow red bars. 

 

Leaf narrowly linear, dark green, sparsley hairy. Scape very thin and wiry, sparsley hairy. 

Break O'Day; Burnie; Central Highlands; Clarence; Dorset; Flinders Island; Georgetown; Glamorgan-Spring Bay; Glenorchy; Hobart; King Island; Kingborough; Latrobe; Launceston; Northern Midlands; Southern Midlands; Tasman; Waratah-Wynyard; West Coast; West Tamar 

Dry Eucalypt Forest and Woodland 

Heathy open eucalypt forest and woodland. 

Dry; Exposed; Exposed; Shady 

Tender 

Loam; Sandy; Well-drained 

Tends to favour drier habitats nad to flower earlier than C. carnea. Moderate to high fire frequency. Well 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.