Caleana major

Common Name: Flying Duck Orchid

flying duck orchid

Description: Leaf usually prostrate, narrow-lanceolate, to 12 cm long and 8 mm wide, often spotted.

Inflorescence wiry, 1–5-flowered. Flowers reddish brown to shiny purple (rarely greenish with dark spots). Sepals and lateral petals to 15 mm long, narrow-linear, often channelled. Lateral sepals obliquely erect; dorsal sepal and lateral petals clasping or reflexed against the column wings. Labellum claw prominently curved supporting the inverted and erect lamina; lamina to 8 mm long and 6 mm wide, with a polished, smoothly sculptured appearance bearing a solitary, strap-like appendage. Column scoop-shape

Flower colour: Blue but also white to pink, or mauve to deep violet

Flowering Time:September to February
Grows where: Widespread, usually forming colonies of only a few plants in sclerophyll forest, coastal or swampy shrubland and heathland, often in sandy or gravelly soils

Height: to 40 cm

Link to PlantNET New South Wales Flora Online: Flying Duck orchid