''Caladenia lowanensis'', commonly known as Wimmera spider orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to Victoria, Australia. It is a ground orchid with a single leaf and a single cream-coloured flower with red lines and blotches. The total population of this orchid was estimated in 2010 to be only about 700 plants but most are protected in reserves.

Description

''Caladenia lowanensis'' 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 a spherical underground tuber. It has a single leaf, long and wide. A single flower wide is borne on a spike tall. The flowers are cream-coloured with red streaks and blotches. The sepals have flattened, club-like, dark red glandular tips long. The dorsal sepal is erect, long and wide. The lateral sepals are long, wide and spread widely, sometimes curved downwards. 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, about wide and arranged like the lateral sepals. The labellum is egg-shaped, long, wide and pale yellowish with red streaks and a red tip which is curled under. The sides of the labellum have linear teeth up to long and there are four or six well-spaced rows of shiny red calli along its mid-line but not extending to the tip. Flowering occurs in September and October.

Taxonomy and naming

''Caladenia lowanensis'' was first formally described in 1991 by

Geoffrey Carr Geoffrey Carr (22 January 1886 – 13 July 1969) was a Great Britain, British rowing Coxswain (rowing), coxswain who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Carr was born in Putney and became a member of Thames Rowing Club. He was the coxswain ...

from a specimen collected near

Kiata Kiata is a town in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia. The town is north-west of the state capital of Melbourne, on the Western Highway. The population at the 2011 census was 251. The Kiata Wind Farm is located nearby. Facili ...

and the description was published in ''Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association Miscellaneous Paper 1''. 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 ...

(''lowanensis'') is derived from the Lowan district of Victoria with the Latin

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

''-ensis'' meaning "of" or "from" referring to the distribution of this orchid species.

Distribution and habitat

The Wimmera spider orchid grows in sparse woodland near Kiata, in and near the Little Desert National Park.

Conservation

''Caladenia lowanensis'' is listed as "endangered" under the Victorian ''

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 The ''Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988'', also known as the ''FFG Act'', is an act of the Victorian Government designed to protect species, genetic material and habitats, to prevent extinction and allow maximum genetic diversity within the Au ...

'' and under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999''. In 2010 the known population of this species was 700 plants in five populations but about 90% of these were protected in reserves. The main threats to the species are rubbish dumping, trampling, weed invasion and grazing by rabbits (''

Oryctolagus cuniculus The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. It has b ...

'').

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9673734 lowanensis Plants described in 1991 Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of Victoria (state)