''Caladenia dorrigoensis'' is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It has a single leaf and a single white flower with purple marks on its labellum.

Description

''Caladenia dorrigoensis'' is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous,

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 usually grows in loose groups. It has a single erect, narrow linear, more or less glabrous leaf, long and wide. A single flower wide is borne on a flowering stem tall. The front of the flower is mostly white and the back is covered with brownish or purplish glands. The dorsal sepal is spoon-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and about wide forming a hood over the

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

. The lateral sepals have similar dimensions to the dorsal sepal but slightly narrower and curved. The petals are long and about wide and curved. The labellum is egg-shaped, white with pale purplish lines and has three distinct lobes, the central one egg-shaped, long and about wide. The lateral lobes of the labellum are erect and surround the column while the central part has six to eight short, purplish-black teeth on each side. The tip of the labellum is curved downward and there are two rows of dark purplish-black, stalked calli along the mid-line of the labellum. Flowering occurs in October.

Taxonomy and naming

''Caladenia dorrigoensis'' was first described in 2016 by David Jones and Lachlan Copeland from a specimen collected in the Dorrigo National Park and the description was published in ''Australian Orchid Review''. 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 ...

(''dorrigoensis'') refers to the area to which this species seems to be restricted.

Distribution and habitat

This orchid appears to be confined to the a small area in the Dorrigo district where it grows in woodland with a shrubby understorey.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q30686901 dorrigoensis Plants described in 2016 Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of New South Wales Taxa named by David L. Jones (botanist) Taxa named by Lachlan Mackenzie Copeland