The State Herbarium of South Australia published an article in Vol. 38 of its journal Swainsona today, 19 Dec. 2024. This is the last paper for this year and completes Vol. 38.

A.E. McDougall & T.A. Hammer, A reinstated synonymy and corrected type citation for Caladenia haemantha (Orchidaceae), with taxonomic notes on Caladenia formosa (2.6mb PDF).

Caladenia formosa (Elegant spider orchid) and C. haemantha (Scott Creek spider orchid) were both described in 1991. For some time, the two species were seen to be synonymous and combined under the name C. formosa, for example in the Flora of Victoria and the Plants of the World Online (POWO) database, until Jones resurrected C. haemantha in his recent book on the orchids of Australia; a view that was also taken up by the online Flora of Australia. The authors of this paper provide evidence that Caladenia haemantha should be again synonymised under the earlier published name C. formosa. They provide a detailed description of the (again combined) species and illustrate the paper with photographs of the type specimens and of life plants.

Different colour forms of Caladenia formosa. Photo: T.A. Hammer (LEFT), A.E. McDougall (RIGHT).

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.