Caladenia carnea R.Br.
Original localities: Australian east coast.
Plant at fl. c. 5–20–(30) cm. tall. Stem erect, slender, ± pilose below, glandular-pubescent above. Green lf solitary, narrow-linear, us. shorter than peduncle, sparsely clad in both short glandular and longer non-glandular hairs. Floral bracts 1–5, lower 1–2 often empty. Fls 1–3–(5) in lax raceme, ovary us. > bract. Per. (in N.Z.) c. 1–2 cm. diam., white, greenish, pink or darker green and red, glandular-hairy externally. Sepals narrow-lanceolate and acute; dorsal ± erect; lateral spreading or deflexed. Petals similar to lateral sepals. Labellum 3-lobed; mid-lobe narrowly triangular, recurved, mostly with marginal calli; lateral lobes broad, transversely barred with red; calli in 2 ± regular rows on disc. Column ± erect, often transversely barred with red; wings narrow below, widest about level of stigma.
Key
DIST.: N., S., St., Ch., A.
Under light scrub.
FL. 9–10–1.
The new tuber is produced close to but often below the previous one, the new shoot emerging through old lf-sheaths. In some plants as many as 6 successive tubers can be recognized.
No critical description of the type of the sp. has been seen, and a number of vars have been described in Australia where the limits of the species itself have been variously interpreted. Several infra-specific taxa have been named in N.Z.
Var. minor (Hook. f.) Hatch in T.R.S.N.Z. 75, 1945, 368. C. minor Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 247, t. 56B. Original localities: "Northern Island. Dry clay hills, abundant. Edgerley, etc." Type: K(?).
Var. minor forma calliniger Hatch in T.R.S.N.Z. Bot. 2, 1963, 187. Type: AK 116832 Bankside, Silverdale, 12/10/1949, F. W. Bartlett.
Var. exigua (Cheesem.) Rupp in Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 69, 1944, 75. C. minor var. exigua Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 688. C. exigua Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 41, 1913, 96. Lectotype: AK 3589 Kaitaia, R. H. Matthews.
Var. bartlettii Hatch in T.R.S.N.Z. 77, 1949, 402. Fig. G on p. 400 depicts labellum. Type: AK 24847 ex "Herb. Hatch No. 567, Wade River, Silverdale, 8/10/1947, F. W. Bartlett".
C. variegata Col. in T.N.Z.I. 17, 1885, 248. Original locality: "Near Norsewood, County of Waipawa: December 1883: W.C." Described from a number of plants from "one spot" and represented by several specimens at AK and at WELT. On the labellum small calli were said to be scattered on each side of the two longitudinal rows, and on the margin of the mid-lobe were 1–2 calli at the extreme base followed by deep crenations; otherwise the plants seem to fall into C. carnea.
C. menziesii R. Br.
In N.Z. specimens of C. carnea both the size of the mid-lobe of the labellum relative to the side lobes and the details of its marginal processes show a wide range; there is a gradation from definitely stipitate calli through wholly membr. marginal teeth to mere undulations and almost entire margins. Various abnormalities of the column and its wings occur and in occasional plants the labellum becomes petal-like. Nicholls (Vict. Nat., Melb. 61, 1945, 207, figs k, 1, m) described teratological specimens of in which the labellum resembled the petals, retaining only vestigial calli, while the column wings were fused for ⅔ of their length, so forming a cavity in front of the column. In other genera an occasional petal-like labellum has been seen, e.g., in Prasophyllum, or column-wings produced into a central triangular lobe in front of the stigma, as in Thelymitra circumsepta Fitz. Aust. Orchids 1(4), 1878, t. 1.
GENUS DUBIUM
P. calyciformis Rogers in J. Bot., Lond. 62, 1924, 66, t. 571, 1–3.
P. saccatus Rogers in J. Bot., Lond. 62, 1924, 66, t. 571, 4–7.
