Collie Spider Orchid
Caladenia leucochila
Synonyms
- Caladenia sp. ‘Colllie’
Notes
The Collie Spider Orchid is a rare species that is only known from a small area near the town of Collie, Western Australia, where it grows in sandy soils at the base of lateritic slopes in forests and woodlands, often adjacent to seasonally wet areas. It flowers from early to mid spring. The flowers are quite variable in colour, ranging from cream-white to yellow or red.
While it looks superficially similar to the White Spider Orchid (Caladenia longicauda), the Collie Spider Orchid is readily distinguished by its much shorter, stiffly held petals and sepals and the fact that the dorsal sepal is pointing forward in a characteristic manner. In addition, the sepals are much more prominently clubbed, while the petals usually have no clubbing at all.
In fact, the Collie Spider Orchid looks very much like a hybrid between the White Spider Orchid and the Rusty Spider Orchid (Caladenia ferruginea) and may have originated from such hybrids in the past in a process called hybrid speciation. This would naturally explain its narrow geographic range.
Photos
† The photos were not taken in the wild, but at Kings Park in Perth where the Collie Spider Orchid was on display in the threatened species section of the botanical garden.
References
- Caladenia leucochila in the Australian Plant Name Index
- Caladenia leucochila in the Atlas of Living Australia
- Caladenia leucochila in the Western Australian FloraBase