The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Caladenia
Caladenia, the spider orchids, is a genus of about 350 terrestrial orchid species, mostly native to Australia, with many found in south-west Western Australia. They are notoriously hard to grow in cultivation because they depend on a specific symbiotic fungus.
Caladenia, commonly known as spider orchids, is a genus of 350 species of plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Spider orchids are terrestrial herbs with a single hairy leaf and a hairy stem. The labellum is fringed or toothed in most species and there are small projections called calli on the labellum. The flowers have adaptations to attract particular species of insects for pollination. The genus is divided into three groups on the basis of flower shape, broadly, spider orchids, zebra orchids and cowslip orchids, although other common names are often used. Although they occur in other countries, most are Australian and 136 species occur in Western Australia, making it the most species-rich orchid genus in that state.
Caladenia have generally proven difficult to maintain and cultivate artificially. Some enthusiasts have had limited success by cultivating the symbiotic fungus that the orchid requires and by careful use of fertiliser to keep the fungus and orchid in balance. The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia' records that "These and other orchids have edible tubers."
Most caladenias are endemic to Australia. Eleven species, ten of which are endemic, occur in New Zealand with one also occurring in Australia. Caladenia catenata and C. carnea occur in New Caledonia, with the latter also found in Indonesia. There are about 136 species endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, 114 of which have been formally described and a further 18 hybrids which have been described and named.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Caladenia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
