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1. Introduction

Southeast mainland Australia, incorporating Victoria, southern New South Wales and southeast South Australia contains about 65 species of Caladenia (Harden 1993, Jessop and Toelken 1986, Walsh and Entwisle 1994). Approximately one half of these species are threatened with extinction (Backhouse and Jeanes 1995). The genus contains at least two species, which are presumed extinct while a further 15 species are considered endangered (Backhouse and Jeanes 1995).

Several Victorian Caladenia species, namely Caladenia amoena D. L. Jones,
Caladenia audasii R. S. Rogers and Caladenia hastata (Nicholls) Rupp are currently the subject
of federally-funded national recovery plans aimed at reducing the risk of extinction to these
species in the wild. In addition, a draft recovery plan has been written for
Caladenia robinsonii G. W. Carr and this will be a priority for implementation once a final plan
has been prepared. One additional species Caladenia rosella G. W. Carr, was the subject of a
national recovery plan prepared in 1992 and this plan is in need of review. South Australia has
received Commonwealth funding to prepare national recovery plans for several orchid taxa
including two southeast Spider-Caladenia species, Caladenia calcicola G.W.Carr and
C. richardsiorum D. L. Jones (Adrian Stokes, EH, pers. comm.). New South Wales is preparing
recovery plans under the New South Wales Threatened Species and Communities Act 1995 for a
number of Caladenia  species, including Caladenia concolor Fitzg. and Caladenia arenaria Fitzg.
(Stephen Clark and Geoff Robertson, NSW NPWS, pers. comm.).

The current recovery plan aims to provide a framework and guidelines for securing the conservation of a range of nationally-threatened Victorian and South Australian Caladenia taxa including and in addition to some of those Victorian species listed above. Additional species included are Caladenia formosa G. W. Carr, Caladenia fragrantissima D. L. Jones et G. W. Carr ssp. orientalis G. W. Carr, Caladenia lowanensis G. W. Carr, Caladenia tensa G. W. Carr, Caladenia thysanochila G. W. Carr, Caladenia versicolor G. W. Carrand Caladenia xanthochila D. et C. Beardsell. In all, the current recovery plan addresses the recovery of twelve taxa (see Table 1 below) including five taxa that have been the subject of past or current species-specific plans and seven taxa that are being considered under this plan for the first time.

Table 1: Summary of recovery planning for the twelve threatened Victorian and South Australian Caladenia taxa included as part of the current recovery plan.

Species name	Common name	Existing Recovery plan	Reference
Caladenia amoena D.L. Jones	Charming Spider-orchid	Yes - current	Backhouse et al. (1999a)
Caladenia audasii R.S. Rogers	Audas' Spider-orchid	Yes - current	Berwick et al. (1999)
Caladenia formosa G.W. Carr	Elegant Spider-orchid	No
Caladenia fragrantissima D.L. Jones et. G.W. Carrssp. orientalis G.W. Carr	Eastern Spider-orchid	No
Caladenia hastata (Nicholls) Rupp	Mellblom's Spider-orchid	Yes - current	Hill et al. (1999)
Caladenia lowanensis G.W. Carr	Wimmera Spider-orchid	No
Caladenia robinsonii G.W. Carr	Frankston Spider-orchid	Yes - draft	Backhouse et al. (1999b)
Caladenia rosella G.W. Carr	Rosella Spider-orchid	Yes - out of date	Beardsell and Muir (1992)
Caladenia tensa G.W. Carr	Rigid Spider-orchid	No
Caladenia thysanochila G.W. Carr	Fringed Spider-orchid	No
Caladenia versicolor G.W. Carr	Candy Spider-orchid	No
Caladenia xanthochila D. et. C. Beardsell	Yellow-lip Spider-orchid	No

Despite the fact that species-specific recovery plans exist for a number of Victorian Caladenia taxa, there is a reasonable ecological basis and economies of scale for including these species as part of the current generic recovery plan. The current plan is not meant to replace those existing plans but rather provide a context in which recovery of those taxa will occur. Directions and actions specified in the original species recovery plans remain current and have been fully integrated into this current plan. The species-specific plans should be referred to for more detailed information relating to the recovery of particular species (see Table 1 above).

It should be noted that a generic recovery plan of this nature is limited by the varying quality of information available on the constituent taxa covered by the plan. Some taxa have been the subject of intensive research over a number of decades while for other taxa, only basic distribution, habitat and morphological data exist. As a result, the recovery plan details a range of recovery actions considered necessary for the recovery of twelve threatened Caladenia taxa in Victoria and South Australia. Not all actions will be necessary for any particular taxon and the importance of particular actions will vary from taxon to taxon. Nevertheless, it is hoped and anticipated that actions undertaken for any particular taxon will have positive spin-offs for other taxa.

It is also anticipated that the current plan could form the framework for the recovery of additional threatened Spider-Caladenia species that may warrant conservation measures in the future. There are a number of well-known Victorian taxa that urgently require recovery actions (eg. Caladenia fulva G. W. Carr, Caladenia insularis G. W. Carr) while there are also a number of newly described and undescribed threatened Caladenia taxa that should be the subject of national recovery efforts (Backhouse and Jeanes 1995, Jones 1999, G. Carr, Ecology Australia P/L, pers. comm.). Examples include Caladenia cruciformis D. L. Jones, Caladenia maritima D. L. Jones and Caladenia pilotensis D. L. Jones. It is anticipated that these could be easily incorporated into the generic plan if required, as could other threatened Caladenia taxa from other states in southeast Australia.