''Caladenia armata'' is a plant in the orchid family

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

. It has a single dull green leaf with purple blotches near the base, and a single cream-coloured to pink flower with red to maroon markings. It is only known from a single population containing fewer than ten plants.

Description

''Caladenia armata'' is a terrestrial,

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

with an underground tuber and which grows in small groups. It has a single dull green leaf with purple blotches near the base. The leaf is long, wide and is densely covered with hairs up to long. A single flower wide is borne on a wiry, hairy, reddish flowering stem tall. The flower is cream-coloured to pink, with red lines. The dorsal

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

is long, about wide and tapers to a thick glandular tip long. The lateral sepals are a similar to the dorsal sepal but almost twice as wide. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are long and wide. The labellum is lance-shaped to egg-shaped, long and wide and dark red to maroon or green with a maroon tip. The labellum curves forward and there are five to twelve pairs of linear, dark purplish-red teeth on its sides. The mid-line of the labellum has four rows of calli, the longest of which are and shaped like hockey sticks. Flowering occurs in October.

Taxonomy and naming

''Caladenia armata'' was first formally described in 2006 by David L. Jones who gave it the name ''Arachnorchis armata'' and published the description in ''Australian Orchid Research'' from a specimen collected on the Majura Field Firing Range. In 2010,

Gary Backhouse Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Uni ...

changed the name to ''Caladenia armata''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''armata'') is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word meaning "furnish dwith weapons", referring to the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

location.

Distribution and habitat

This spider orchid is only known from ten individual plants growing in the Majura Field Firing Range in open forest of red stringbark (''

Eucalyptus macrorhyncha ''Eucalyptus macrorhyncha'', commonly known as the red stringybark, is a species of medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, stringy, grey to brown bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between se ...

'') and white gum (''

Eucalyptus rossii ''Eucalyptus rossii'', commonly known as inland scribbly gum or white gum, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It has smooth bark with insect scribbles, lance-shap ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9673308 armata Plants described in 2006 Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of the Australian Capital Territory Taxa named by David L. Jones (botanist)