The Cowslip Orchid or Butter Orchid (Caladenia flava) is species of orchid found across Southwest Australia

Southwest Australia

Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...

.

Description

The species Caladenia flava is a perennial herb, which grows from underground stems. The leaf and flowerstalk appear from these to present several yellow flowers during July – December. The leaf is long for the species size, becoming narrower beyond the middle. Flowers are on a long stalk and are between two to five, usually yellow, occasionally pinkish or white, and speckled with magenta. Sepals and petals are broad though long, tapering to a point, and contracted at the base. Lateral sepals may be over 2–3 mm long, the upper sepal is smaller, with a reddish line of splotches along the centre. The flower has a lip over 5 mm with a small claw-shaped structure, three lobes are nearly separate, lateral lobes are ovate, the middle lobe longer and slightly broad, bordered on each side by several long structures (calli). These calli are in two rows, almost a semicircle. A column structure is present, and is winged from the base.

Distribution

Many soil types, laterite, and granite. Common. The species has been identified as occurring with burnt trees, namely marri gum. It often occurs in winter wet areas, in forest, the coastal woodlands, and on the granite outcrops throughout the Southwest Botanical Province. The occurrence is all the regions there, it has also been identified in sandplains

Geraldton Sandplains

Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...

, the arid areas, and extending its range to the Coolgardie

Coolgardie (biogeographic region)

Coolgardie is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region and a World Wildlife Fund ecoregion consisting of an area of low hills and plains of infertile sandy soil in Western Australia. -Location and description:...

 region.

Classification

The species was first described from the lectotype

Lectotype

In botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature, a lectotype is a kind of name-bearing type. When a species was originally described on the basis of a name-bearing type consisting of multiple specimens, one of those may be designated as the lectotype...

 in Archibald Menzies

Archibald Menzies

Archibald Menzies was a Scottish surgeon, botanist and naturalist.- Life and career :Menzies was born at Easter Stix in the parish of Weem, in Perthshire. While working with his elder brother William at the Royal Botanic Gardens, he drew the attention of Dr John Hope, professor of botany at...

's important early collection. Robert Brown

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

 included a description of species in his Prodomus and gave the name that is current today. The genus Caladenia

Caladenia

The genus Caladenia belongs to the subfamily Orchidoideae of the orchid family . The abbreviation Calda. is often used in trade journals to indicate the genus....

was substantially revised in 2001, this was published in Nuytsia

Nuytsia (journal)

Nuytsia is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Western Australian Herbarium. It publishes papers on systematic botany, giving preference to papers related to the flora of Western Australia. Nearly twenty percent of Western Australia's plant taxa have been published in Nuytsia. First published...

and reviewed in The Orchadian.

Three new subspecies were described:

• Caladenia flava R.Br. subsp. flava
• Caladenia flava subsp. maculata Hopper & A.P.Br. Common Name: The Kalbarri Cowslip Orchid
• Caladenia flava subsp. sylvestris Hopper & A.P.Br. Karri Cowslip Orchid