''Caladenia remota'' subsp. ''remota'', commonly known as the outback spider orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It has a single hairy leaf and one or two relatively large creamy-white to pale yellow flowers. It is relatively common in moist soil around granite outcrops, growing in more inland areas than most other spider orchids.

Description

''Caladenia remota'' subsp. ''remota'' 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 a single erect, hairy leaf, long and about wide. One or two cream-coloured to creamy-yellow flowers long and wide are borne on a spike tall. The sepals and

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 have long, brown, thread-like tips. The dorsal sepal is erect, long and wide. The lateral sepals are long and wide, spread apart and turned downwards. The petals are long and wide and spread horizontally near their bases but then turn downwards. The labellum is long, wide and cream coloured with red lines and marks. The sides of the labellum have many short blunt teeth, the tip curls under and there are two rows of anvil-shaped, white calli, sometimes with red tips, along its centre. Flowering occurs from August to mid December.

Taxonomy and naming

''Caladenia remota'' was first described in 2001 by

Stephen Hopper Stephen Donald Hopper AC FLS FTSE (born 18 June 1951) is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his n ...

and

Andrew Phillip Brown Andrew Phillip Brown (born 1951) is a conservation biologist and taxonomist at the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation. He is also curator of Orchidaceae and Myoporaceae Myoporaceae was a family of plants, found mostly ...

and the description was published in '' Nuytsia''. At the same time they described two subspecies, including subspecies ''remota''. 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 ...

(''remota'') is a Latin word meaning "distant" or "far off" referring to the more inland distribution of this species of orchid.

Distribution and habitat

The outback spider orchid is found between Yalgoo and

Bonnie Rock Bonnie Rock is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The town was once the terminus of the railway to Beacon. The name of the town originated from a rock formation that is situated close to the town, that was named by a s ...

in the Avon Wheatbelt, Murchison and Yalgoo

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

where it usually grows in moist areas around the edges of granite outcrops.

Conservation

''Caladenia remota'' subsp. ''remota'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q26214086 remota Endemic orchids of Australia Orchids of Western Australia Plants described in 2001 Taxa named by Stephen Hopper Taxa named by Andrew Phillip Brown