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Small spider orchid

Caladenia barbarella

Small spider orchid
Photo: Cal Wood, CC BY 4.0

Caladenia barbarella, the small dragon orchid, is a tuberous, deciduous terrestrial orchid from south-west Western Australia, known only from a small area near Kalbarri. It is a wild species rarely grown in gardens, and its care depends on its winter-wet, summer-dry native habitat.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Water during the cool, wet winter and spring growing season, then keep the tuber dry while the plant is dormant in summer.
Soil
Free-draining, sandy, acidic soil or a sandy orchid mix.
How easy
Hard
Native range
WSW. Australia
Climate
subtropical

About

Caladenia barbarella, commonly known as the small dragon orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has a single broad, hairy leaf held close to the ground and a single greenish-yellow and red flower. It is only known from a small area near the Murchison River.

Where it grows

Small dragon orchid is known from fourteen populations east and north-east of Kalbarri in the Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic region where it grows under low shrubs in areas that are inundated in winter.

Other Caladenia plants

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

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Caladenia barbarella 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.

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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