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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Orchidaceae
Caladenia gracilis

Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 324 (1810).

Synonymy: C. angusrata Lindicy, Gen. & Sp. Orch. Pl. 420 (1840); C testacea sensu R. Rogers in J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 140 (1922), non R. Br.

Common name: Musky (or slender) caladenia, musky spider-orchid.

Description:
Slender, sparsely hairy, 15-45 cm high; leaf narrow-linear, very slightly hairy, 6-12 cm long.

Flowers dark and glandular on the outside, white inside, with a strong musky odour, 1-5 in a raceme, on slender pedicels; buds characteristic, bluntly falcate in shape, covered with dark glandular hairs; perianth-segments c. 10 mm long, generally a dark reddish-brown (except towards the base) on the outside, white or light-coloured within, subequal; all spreading except the dorsal sepal; dorsal sepal erect, incurved, concave, acute, contracted at the base; lateral sepals slightly longer than other segments, elliptic-lanceolate; petals falcate, lanceolate; labellum c. 7 mm long (extended and including a movable claw), the basal portion erect against the column, recurved forward about the middle; margins entire except towards the triangular tip, the edges of which are shortly and sparsely denticulate; labellum obscurely 3-lobed, the lateral lobes ill-defined; calli of the lamina in 4 rows reaching almost to the extreme tip, where the rows are not so evident, clubbed, the stalks shorter towards the tip; column 7-8 mm long, incurved, widely winged especially in the upper part.

Published illustration: Galbraith (1967) Wildflowers of Victoria 2:t. 21A as C. angustara; Gray (1971) Victorian native orchids 2:23.

Distribution:  It occurs singly or in small groups in deep sandy loams among bracken in open forest under stringy bark (Eucalyptus baxteri) and wattles (Acacia spp.) near Millicent, Glencoe and Comaum.

  N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Sept. — Nov.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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