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Fairy orchid

Caladenia alata

Also called Fairy Fingers

Fairy orchid
Photo: Glenda Wood, CC BY 3.0 au
Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Water
Likes moisture
Native range
SE. Queensland to Tasmania, New Zealand
Climate
subtropical

About

Caladenia alata, commonly known as the fairy orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is found in south-eastern Australia and New Zealand. It is a ground orchid with small, usually short-lived flowers, which have relatively stiffly held petals and sepals and reddish-purple bars on the labellum.

Where it grows

Fairy orchid grows in forest and woodland in moist places, often in steep, rocky places but also in swamps and at lake edges. In New Zealand it sometimes occurs around hot springs. The distribution is not well understood because the flowers are small and ephemeral but it has been recorded in south-east Queensland, the coast and tablelands of New South Wales, near-coastal areas of Victoria east of Wilsons Promontory and in Tasmania. In New Zealand it is confined to the North Island, mainly between Te Paki and Rotorua.

Other Caladenia plants

Coastal spider orchid · Canberra spider orchid · Caladenia ×aestantha · Summer spider orchid · Stegostyla Alpina · Boranup spider orchid · Bundarra spider orchid · Charming spider orchid · Dainty spider orchid · Dainty blue china orchid · Genoa spider orchid · Caladenia angustata

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Caladenia alata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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