Caladenia aestiva D.L.Jones APNI* Synonyms: Arachnorchis aestiva (D.L.Jones) D.L.Jones & M.A.Clem. APNI*
Description: Terrestrial herb.
Leaf linear or ± lanceolate, to 20 cm long and 10 mm wide, hairy with reddish spots but often withered before flowers open.
Inflorescence to 50 cm high, rarely >2-flowered, wiry, hairy. Sepals and lateral petals to 5.5 cm long; tails often up to half the length of each segments, pale greenish yellow; sepal tails usually ending in clubs (3–14 mm long), lateral petals usually ending in hairy tips; lateral sepals and petals spreading to drooping. Labellum ovate to triangular, 13–17 mm long, usually 8–11 mm wide, obscurely 3-lobed, greenish yellow to pale yellow with maroon tip; lateral margins with short, coarse, falcate teeth becoming progressively shorter and blunter towards tip. Central calli golfstick-shaped (heads curved to flattened), in 4–6 spaced rows diverging to curve outward. Column with 2 yellow glands and reddish, glandular hairs, broadening wings.
Flowering: December–January, often stimulated by bushfires
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in sclerophyll forest on sheltered montane ridges and slopes usually in shallow clay-loam soil; recorded for the Brindabella Ra.
NSW subdivisions: ST
Other Australian states: Vic. ?Tas.
Formerly treated as a northeastern form of C. pallida.
Text by P. Bernhardt
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
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