Family: Orchidaceae
Caladenia ovata
Citation:
R. Rogers, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 33:16, t. 33 (1909).
Synonymy: Arachnorchis ovata, Phlebochilus ovata, Phlebochilus ovatus (amend.) Common name: Ovate (or Kangaroo Island) spider-orchid.
Description:
Slender, hairy, 10-23 cm high; leaf very hairy, 3-7 cm long, narrow-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate.
Flowers usually solitary, occasionally 2, large, reddish-yellow or wholly red; sepals with a dark central stripe, dilated in their basal half thereafter contracted into very fine clavate caudae; dorsal sepal 2-2.7 cm long, erect or slightly incurved over the column; lateral sepals rather longer, spreading; petals shorter than the sepals, lanceolate, not clubbed, spreading; labellum ovate, on a short movable claw, lamina 9-10 mm long and c. 8 mm wide, reddish-yellow with a dark-red tip, moderately recurved from about the middle, margin entire, lamina with dark divergent veins; calli extending to about the bend, but very variable, in 2 or 4 rows, sometimes represented by a few minute irregularly placed bosses, occasionally entirely absent, generally small and papillate except for a few short clavate ones near the claw; column c. 8 mm long, rather incurved, more winged in its upper than lower half; 2 yellow sessile calli at the base.
Published illustration:
Fiveash & Lothian (1974) Australian orchids, pl. 13.
Distribution:
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Occurs singly or in small groupps in hard yellow duplex soil over laterite in thick scrub and associated with Eucalyptus baxteri and Xanthorrhoea semiplana subsp. tateana.
S.Aust.: SL, KI.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: Sept. — Oct.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
Very close to C. leptochila and intermediates do Occur.
Author:
Not yet available
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