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Musky caps

Caladenia moschata

Also called Musky Caladenia

Musky caps
Photo: Melburnian, CC BY 3.0

Musky caps is a small terrestrial orchid from eastern and south-eastern Australia, growing from an underground tuber and producing one leaf and up to five musky-scented flowers in spring. It is a wild native of open forest and dry ridges, and is best left in the bush rather than grown in gardens.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Dormant in summer; keep the soil lightly moist during the growing season and dry in summer.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or gritty native-type soil, low in nutrients.
Temperature
Cool to mild temperatures suited to temperate Australian forest; tolerates frost.
How easy
Hard
Native range
New South Wales
Climate
subtropical

About

Caladenia moschata, commonly known as musky caps or musky caladenia, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. It is a ground orchid with a single leaf and up to five flowers which are dark-coloured on the back and white on the front, sometimes tinged with pink and with a strong musky or soapy odour. The species was previously known as Caladenia gracilis.

Where it grows

Musky caps occurs in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia where it grows in open forest, on dry ridges and slopes. In New South Wales it is found south from the New England region, it is widespread in Victoria and Tasmania, and in South Australia it occurs in the south east corner near Millicent, Glencoe and Wrattonbully.

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 moschata 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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