Monday, 4 February 2013

The Flying Duck Orchid - Australia's Other Amazing Anatine Attraction

image credit: dracophylla cc

The Caleana is more often known as the Duck Orchid - and for fairly obvious reasons. It looks like a duck in flight, its wings swept back, head and beak held high and proud.

This attractive yet amusing addition to the orchid genus is a native of Australia, famed perhaps more for its marsupials than its mallards. Yet as a result of the shape of its labellum (or lip) its anatine association will be that by which it is always remembered.

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