Scientific Name: Caleana major

Common Name: flying duck-orchid

Family Classification (Clade): Monocots

Family: Orchidaceae

Form Description: Broad reddish, often spotted leaf, tall wiry scape.

Height (m): 0.2 – 0.4

Flowers: Usually bearing 1-3 flying-duck-shaped reddish shiny flowers with a sensitive hinged, smooth, broad labellum that snaps into the broad reddish column wings when touched.

Fruit: Papery capsule

Municipality
Break O’DayBurnieCentral HighlandsClarenceDerwent ValleyDorsetFlindersGeorge TownGlamorgan-Spring BayHobartHuon ValleyKentishKingboroughLatrobeLauncestonNorthern MidlandsSorellSouthern MidlandsTasmanWaratah-WynyardWest Tamar
Plant Communities
Dry Eucalypt ForestHeath
Habitat Notes

Heathy open eucalypt forest, sheoak woodland, teatree scrub and heathland. Widespread and locally common in lowland areas below 250m in the north, east and south-east and on Flinders Island.

Site Tolerance

Dry, Exposed, Shady

Soil Tolerance

Loam, Nutrient-poor, Sandy, Well-drained

Frost Tolerance

Tender

Propagation Calendar

  • Flowering Month
    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
  • Seed Collecting Month
    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
  • Sowing Month
    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
  • Cutting Month
    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Propagation Method
Specialist Method

Seed Information

Seed Treatment Notes

Orchid seeds are very minute yellow, brown or blackish dust-like particles. Orchid seeds are produced within a capsule that splits at maturity and releases thousands to millions of seeds. Dispersed by wind and water and only germinate following infection of the embryo by a suitable mycorrhizal fungus. Very few seeds become mature plants. For more information see Jones, Wapstra, Tonelli, Harris (1999): The Orchids of Tasmania.