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 lateritica, also known as white primrose orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to relatively inaccessible, high lateritic plateaux in a high rainfall area in south-western Western Australia. It is a ground orchid with a single hairy leaf and one or two white flowers on a thin, sparsely-hairy stem. It is similar to Caladenia flava but is distinguished by its fragrant white versus yellow flowers with prominent red stripes and spots on the dorsal sepal and lateral petals. Caladenia lateritica mimics Conostylis setosa (Haemodoraceae) in terms of flowering time, height, colour and fragrance. It also shares a native bee pollinator with Conostylis setosa, which provides pollen and nectar whereas the orchid is rewardless.
Caladenia lateritica is only found on isolated lateritic plateaux south of Dwellingup and north-east of Waroona in south-western Western Australia, often forming extensive pure stands or co-occurring with Caladenia rosea. They grow in shallow lateritic regolith that overlay massive bauxite, in open woodland comprising an overstory of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), marri (Corymbia calophylla) and parrot bush (Banksia sessilis), with an understory of Conostylis setosa, Orthrosanthus laxus, Xanthorrhoea preissii, Hypocalymma robustum, Phyllanthus calycinus and Stylidium species.
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 lateritica 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.
