Caladenia flava subsp. sylvestris


Caladenia flava subsp. sylvestris, commonly known as the karri cowslip orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has a single, hairy leaf and up to three pale yellow and cream-coloured flowers which are white near the tips of the sepals and petals and marked with bright red or pink.

Description

Caladenia flava subsp. sylvestris is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single hairy leaf, long, about wide and tinged with purple on its lower side. Up to four flowers long and wide are borne on stalks tall. The sepals and petals are pale lemon-yellow grading to white near their tips with a line of bright red or pink marks along the mid-line. The dorsal sepal is erect, long, wide and the lateral sepals are larger than the dorsal sepal, long and wide. The petals are long and wide. The labellum is long and wide and has three lobes. The lateral lobes are egg-shaped, sometimes with four to six club-shaped teeth. The middle lobe has four to six erect teeth and there are two rows of calli along its centre forming a U-shape. Flowering occurs from October to December.
This subspecies differs from subspecies flava in its taller flowering stems and later flowering. It differs from subspecies maculata in its more southerly distribution, taller flowering stems and paler-coloured flowers.

Taxonomy and naming

Caladenia flava was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in Brown's book Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. In 2001, Stephen Hopper and Andrew Phillip Brown described three subspecies of Caladenia flava including Caladenia flava subsp. sylvestris and published the descriptions in Nuytsia. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "of woods" referring to the habitat preference of this species.

Distribution and habitat

Karri cowslip orchid grows in forests, especially high-rainfall karri forests between Bunbury and Albany in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Warren biogeographic regions.

Conservation

Caladenia flava subsp. sylvestris is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.