Scientific Name: Paracaleana minor
Common Name: small duck-orchid
Family Classification (Clade): Monocots
Family: Orchidaceae
Form Description: Small duck orchid. Very slender plant with flowering stem erect and wiry. Reddish-brown leaf, often withered at flowering, 50-120mm long.
Height (m): 0.05 – 0.15
Flowers: Small, 1- 7 greenish-brown flowers. Duckbill-shaped labellum green with black calli, attached to the base of the column by a broad, sensitive strap. The reddish column and its wings make the ‘body’ of the duck.
Municipality
Plant Communities
Habitat Notes
Occasional but widespread in damp coastal heaths.
Site Tolerance
Exposed, Moist, Windy
Soil Tolerance
Loam, Nutrient-poor, Poorly-drained, Sandy
General Notes
The labelllum at top of flower is covered with dark red raised glands and attached by a narrow flexible strap which acts as a hinge enabling the ‘head’ to swing down when an insect alights on the flower. Pollination is effected as the insect struggles out of the body cavity.
Propagation Calendar
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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
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.