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Giant spider orchid

Caladenia excelsa

Giant spider orchid
Photo: Geoff Derrin, CC BY-SA 4.0

Caladenia excelsa is a rare Western Australian terrestrial orchid with one hairy leaf and up to three tall, cream to greenish flowers with long drooping tails. It grows from an underground tuber in deep sandy soil in forest and is hard to cultivate outside its native habitat.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Water moderately during the growing season and keep barely moist while dormant in summer.
Soil
Deep, free-draining sandy soil, lightly acidic.
Temperature
Mild, cool-temperate conditions; protect from heavy frost and extreme heat.
How easy
Hard
Native range
SW. Australia
Climate
subtropical

About

Caladenia excelsa, commonly known as giant spider orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rare species with a single, hairy leaf and up to three cream-coloured to greenish-cream flowers with long, drooping sepals and petals. It is one of the tallest spider orchids in Western Australia and, with Caladenia splendens, has the largest flowers of any Western Australian orchid.

Where it grows

The giant spider orchid is found between Dunsborough and Karridale in the Jarrah Forest and Warren biogeographic regions where it grows in forests in deep sandy soils.

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 excelsa 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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