Caladenia flaccida, commonly known as the flaccid spider orchid,[1] is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a ground orchid with a single hairy leaf and up to three cream-coloured, pinkish or red flowers with long, thread-like, glandular tips on the sepals and petals.
Caladenia flaccida is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single, dull green, densely hairy, linear leaf NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide. Up to three cream-coloured, pinkish or red flowers are borne on a thin, wiry spike NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high. The sepals and petals are linear in shape near their base but suddenly taper after about one-fifth of their length to a hairy, thread-like glandular tail. The dorsal sepal is NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long, about 2sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide near the base. The lateral sepals are a similar size and shape to the dorsal sepal and the petals are slightly shorter. The labellum is narrow heart-shaped, about NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide and cream-coloured with red markings or completely red. The labellum curves forward and has broad, white-tipped teeth on the sides and two rows of crowded, cream-coloured, stalked calli along its mid-line, decreasing in size towards the tip. Flowering occurs from August to October.[2] [3]
Caladenia flaccida was first formally described by David Jones in 1991 and the description was published in Australian Orchid Research.[4] The specific epithet (flaccida) is a Latin word meaning "weak" or "drooping",[5] referring to the drooping sepals and petals.
Flaccid spider orchid grows on ridges and slopes in Callitris forest in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and possibly Victoria.[6] [7]