Caleana major R.Br.

Leaf 80–120 × 6–8 mm, green with reddish pink streaks and dark spots. Flower stem 200–500 mm tall, very thin and wiry, 1–5-flowered. Flowers resembling a duck in flight, 20–25 × 6–7 mm, reddish brown, shiny, labellum darker. Perianth segments 12–15 mm long, narrow, channelled, tips pointed. Dorsal sepal elliptical when flattened, decurved close to column, 12–15 × 4.5–5 mm, apex mucronate. Lateral sepals recurved behind labellum, margins incurved, oblong-elliptical when flattened, 12–15 × 2.5–3 mm, apex curved, pointed. Petals recurved against column wings, margins incurved, oblong when flattened, 12–15 × 1–1.3 mm, apex subobtuse. Labellum horizontal to obliquely erect when set; labellum strap 8–9 × 2–2.5 mm, green with thickened margins. Labellum lamina shaped like a duck’s head and bill, 6.5–8 × 5–6 mm, smooth, shiny, dark reddish purple, beak sometimes greenish; basal lobe c. 3.5 × 2.5 mm, tail-like, incurved back under labellum lamina. Column reddish, 10–12 × 5 mm, tapered upwards when viewed from front, broadly winged from base to apex. Anther c. 3 mm long, without a beak. Pollinia oblong-falcate, c. 3 mm long. Stigma circular, c. 3 mm across. The ribs of the capsule, which is rarely seen, are strongly winged.

Widespread and common, especially on the coast and coastal ranges, but also further inland on higher ranges and tablelands. Found growing in open forest, heathy forest, heathland, tea-tree scrub and under sheoaks, usually in freely draining sand, gravel or clay loam, very occasionally in sandy peat over quartz gravel; also colonises disturbed sites such as walking tracks, road embankments and gravel scrapes.