[3]: 148 [4][5][6] Caleana minor was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown from a specimen collected at Port Jackson in "sandy ground between brickfields and Barclay Lagoon".

The description was published in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

[7][8] In 1972 Donald Blaxell changed the name to Paracaleana nigrita but the name change has not been accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families and in 1989 Mark Clements noted that none of the characters used to separate Paracaleana from Caleana is "sufficiently significant" to maintain two genera.

[10] The small duck orchid occurs in eastern Australia and on the North Island of New Zealand.

[3][5][11][12] In New Zealand the species is currently only known from Whakarewarewa near Rotorua and is regarded as "critically threatened".