It is a ground orchid with a single leaf and one or two pale green flowers with red stripes.

Caladenia tensa is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single erect, hairy leaf, 60-120 long and 10-15 wide, often with red spots near its base.

[2][3][4]Caladenia tensa was first formally described in 1991 by Geoffrey Carr from a specimen collected near Kiata and the description was published in Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association Miscellaneous Paper.

[5] In Victoria, the rigid spider orchid is found between Horsham and Ouyen and west to the border with South Australia, mostly in the Little Desert National Park.

The main threats to the species are habitat loss, weed invasion and grazing by rabbits.