Caleana minor R.Br.
Original locality: Port Jackson, N.S.W.
Plant at fl. c. 5–20cm. tall. Stem very slender, smooth. Lf very narrow linear, much shorter than stem. Per. greenish except for deeply coloured labellum. Dorsal sepal to 8 mm. long, linear-spathulate; laterals similar but adnate basally to long column-foot. Petals little shorter. Labellum-claw broad and smooth, curved with its convexity towards column, lamina "produced on the columnar side into a bifid gland-tipped appendage, and at the other end into a triangular pointed process with a spur on each side; centre inflated and hollow; upper surface and margins tuberculate except at the base." Column almost as long as petals, its long foot and broad petaloid wings forming together an upwardly opening cup.
DIST.: N. Kaitaia, Rotorua, Waiotapu.
Open patches among Leptospermum scrub.
FL. 11–12.
Cheeseman (T.N.Z.I. 24, 1892, 411) and Kirk (Ibid. 425–427) both record F. H. Spencer's discovery of this sp. in the Rotorua district. Only a few findings have been recorded, the last apparently that of K. W. Allison in 1923–24 "on poor open land on edge of alum stream" in the area later used for an aerodrome at Rotorua.
The peculiar labellum, of which the above description is quoted from Rupp (Orchids N.S.W. 1943, 42), has its lamina balanced on top of the curved claw so that when tilted over it becomes a lid to the cup formed by the winged column. The relation of these structures to pollination has been discussed by Fitzgerald (Aust. Orchids 1, 6, 1880, pl. (1) in a passage that is quoted in full by Kirk (loc. cit. 426–427). For figures see Hatch T.R.S.N.Z. 79, 1952, Pl. 72.
