ORCHIDACEAE

Paterson's Spider Orchid

Vulnerable 

0.25m - 0.35m (25-35cm) 

Flowers 1-2 commonly creamy white, less commonlt pale yellowish or pinkish, with darker red lines and reddish brown caudae, labellum wholly white to cream, sometimes the apex maroon, calli reddish, column transluscent with reddish markings. 

Papery capsule 

Leaf lanceolate, base red to purple blotched, densley hairy. Scape wiry, densely hairy. 

Burnie; Clarence; Derwent Valley; Flinders Island; Georgetown; Glamorgan-Spring Bay; Glenorchy; Hobart; Huon Valley; Kingborough; Sorell; Tasman 

Coastal Vegetation 

Low shrubby and sedgy heathland 

Exposed; Exposed; Moist 

Tender 

Clay; Loam; Sandy; Well-drained 

Abundant flowering after fire, diminishing with shrubby regrowth. Resticted distribution due to habitat loss. Poorly 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.