Citation: .

Synonymy: C. cupreus R. Rogers, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 42:24, t. 2 (1918); C. herbaceous Lindley, Gen. & Sp. Orchid. Pl. 459 (1840); C. saprophyticus R. Rogers, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 54:41 (1930).

Common name: Copper beard-orchid.

Description:
Flower-stalk 37-60 cm high; leaf linear-lanceolate, 11-15 cm long, rather rigid and fleshy-triangular in section, erect, channelled, sometimes absent or much reduced; stem-bracts 2, copper-coloured, elongate, subulate, clasping.

Flowers 8-15, prevailing tints yellow and reddish-brown; sepals nearly equal in length, yellow with reddish-brown stripes or dots; the dorsal one erect, 8-9 mm long, ovate, concave, acute; the lateral ones slightly longer and narrower, spreading below the labellum; petals erect, ovate-lanceolate, shorter and much narrower than the dorsal sepal, yellow with darker stripes; labellum 8-13 mm long, with a fleshy rectangular base and wide triangular lamina, golden-yellow, protruding between and beyond the lateral sepals; margins fringed with reddish-blue hairs with a metallic lustre; the basal portion glabrous or with brilliant reddish-blue raised callus-like lines with a metallic sheen sometimes more or less fused, but all ending in free divergent hair-like extremities; other hairs on the lamina not dense and rather shorter than in other species of Calochilus; tip recurved and ending in a short glabrous sinuous ribbon; column short and widely winged, very open at the base, with a purple gland at each lower angle; no castellated ridge connecting the glands, but generally reddish-brown markings between them; anthers long, horizontal, with a duck-bill point; stigma transverse, reniform.

Published illustration: Hooker (1832) Curtis's Bot. Mag. 59:t. 3187; Cady & Rotherham (1970) Australian native orchids, pl. 60; Woolcock (1984) Australian terrestrial orchids, pl. 25C.

Distribution:  Occurs singly or in small groups in a variety of habitats from swamp margins to inland dunes under mallee but of very isolated occurrence.   ?W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas..   New Zealand. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Oct. — Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Variability in the species was discussed by Jones (1976) Orchadian 5:83.

Author: Not yet available