Caladenia polychroma

Caladenia polychroma Hopper & A.P.Br.

Calonema polychromum; Calonemorchis polychroma; Jonesiopsis polychroma

Joseph's Spider Orchid

Caladenia filamentosa (Wispy Spider Orchids)

Stephen Hopper & Andrew Brown in Nuytsia 14:264-268, Figs. 65A-F (2001)

Hopetoun to Boyup Brook, growing in sandy-clay soils in woodlands and shrublands.

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A colourful species 200–350 mm high with a hairy leaf 70–120 mm long by 3–5 mm wide and up to two red, pink, yellow and white flowers 80–120 mm across. Flower colour is variable and it is not unusual to find adjacent clumps of plants with different coloured flowers.

It is distinguished from the closely related Tenterden Yellow Spider Orchid (Caladenia straminichila) by its more colourful flowers, larger labellum, dull, creamy white, narrowly anvil-shaped labellum lamina calli and generally later flowering period. It is more distantly related to Ochre Spider Orchid (C. fuscolutescens) from which it can be distinguished by its larger, more colourful flowers, more stiffly held petals and sepals and more northerly distribution.

Not Listed