''Caleana nigrita'', commonly known as the small duck orchid or flying duck orchid is a species of

orchid 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 ...

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

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 ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is the most common of the flying duck orchids and has the widest distribution of the Western Australian species. It has a single smooth leaf and is distinguished from the others by its labellum which has a hump in the middle and calli covering two thirds of its outer end. Its dull colouration makes it difficult to find, especially in areas that are blackened by fire.

Description

''Caleana nigrita'' has a single smooth green or red leaf, long and wide. One or two greenish-yellow and red flowers, long and wide are borne on a stalk high. The dorsal sepal, lateral 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 hang downwards with the dorsal sepal pressed against the column which has broad wings, forming a bucket-like shape. Two-thirds of the outer part of the labellum is covered with glossy black

glands In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

or calli and the labellum has a small hump at its centre. Flowering occurs from August to October.

Taxonomy and naming

The small duck orchid was first formally described in 1840 by

John Lindley John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...

from an incomplete description by James Drummond in ''

Edwards's Botanical Register ''The Botanical Register'', subsequently known as ''Edwards's Botanical Register'', was an illustrated horticultural magazine that ran from 1815 to 1847. It was started by the botanical illustrator Sydenham Edwards, who had previously illustrate ...

''. Drummond had given it the name ''Caleana nigrita'' and Lindley published his description in ''

A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony", also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Sketch Veg. Swan R.'', is an 1839 article by John Lindley on the flora of the Swan River Colony. Nearly 300 new species were published in it, ...

''. In 1972 Donald Blaxell changed the name to ''Paracaleana nigrita'' but the name change has not been accepted by the

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) is an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected plan ...

and in 1989 Mark Clements noted that none of the characters used to separate ''Paracaleana'' from ''Caleana'' is "sufficiently significant" to maintain two genera. 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 ...

(''nigrita'') 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 "blackened".

Distribution and habitat

''Caleana nigrita'' is found in near-coastal areas between Eneabba and Esperance in the

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

, Warren Avon Wheatbelt,

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

and Mallee

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 woodland and shrubland.

Conservation

''Caleana nigrita'' (as ''Paracaleana nigrita'') 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

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q39365145, from2=Q15481345 nigrita Orchids of Western Australia Endemic orchids of Australia Plants described in 1840 Endemic flora of Western Australia