Sand loving spider orchid ²

Caladenia arenicola, commonly known as the carousel spider orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has a single erect, hairy leaf and up to three red, white and green flowers on a flowering stem up to 60 cm (20 in) high. It is a common species on the Swan Coastal Plain, where it grows in sandy soil under trees.

Description. ³

Difficult and sometimes impossible to distiguish from C. georgeii (Tuart spider orchid). They co-occur in the perth area and both hybridise readily with each other and C. longicuada.
C georgei is paler and has taller labelum fringes and has a preference for Tuart woodland, whereas C arenicola likes sand, has shorter stiffer lableum fringes and has much colour variation, from pale green-white to dark red maroon.
Common in many urban perth bush patches, good places to find include: wireless hill, bold park, kinks park, warwick reserve and thecarpark bushland around Ecu joondalup.

Confusable species:

If the labelum is dark purple with a glossy- shiny thickened surface it's likely to be C. paludosa

Normally should have 4 rows of calli on the lableum if 6 or more it likely indicates hybridisation with C. longicuada.

The fringes of the lableum shouldn't bifurcate or split, if present this likely indicates either hybridisation with C. longicauda or that the individual is C. georgeii or C. huegelii.

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Fontes e Créditos

1. (c) Em Lamond, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY), uploaded by Em Lamond
2. Adaptado por Em Lamond de uma obra de (c) Wikipedia, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caladenia_arenicola
3. (c) Em Lamond, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA)

Mais informações

• BioDiversity4All taxon page
• Atlas of Living Australia
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• World Flora Online

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