Caladenia cleistantha
D.L.JonesFlowering plant slender, 5–12 cm tall. Leaf linear, 6–10 cm long, about half as long as flowering stem, 1–2 mm wide. Flowers 1 or 2, externally reddish, not opening (cleistogamous); ovary 3–4 mm long; perianth segments 6–7 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, glandular outside, with rounded acute tips; dorsal sepal linear-elliptic; lateral sepals asymmetrically ovate-lanceolate; petals obliquely lanceolate. Labellum sessile, 3-lobed, 4–6 mm long, 5–6.5 mm wide (when flattened), white, with a few dark red, narrow, transverse bars; lateral lobes prominent, broad, margins slightly wavy; mid-lobe c. 2.5 mm long, recurved in distal half, triangular, margin without calli but slightly irregular, tip of labellum yellow; lamina calli in 2 rows up to base of mid-lobe, stalked and clubbed, yellow. Column incurved, narrowly winged, greenish, barred dark-red; anther with prominent short point. Flowers Aug.–Sep.
GipP, EGL. Also SA, NSW. Scattered across southern Victoria, east of Melbourne, among low shrubs in heathland and open-forest, often in moss over rocks or in soils with laterite nodules.
Caladenia cleistantha differs from C. carnea in having smaller flowers in which the perianth never opens.
Entwisle, T.J. (1994). Orchidaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 740–901. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
