Orchid Borealis

Paphiopedilum mastersianum is known to occur in Ambon Island and Buru Island , a part of the Maluk Islands in Indonesia (Cribb 1988). The Maluk Islands are located between Sulawesi and New Guinea. It grows at elevations between 900-2000m in they shady montane forest (Cribb 1988).  The lime green dorsal sepal with the white margin beatutifully contrasts with the deep maroon of the petals. I have been growing them from the flask for 6 years, and this is the first blooming among the siblings.  Frequently, we don't know the lineages of orchids, but here I want to write down what is know about the history of this plant.  I got the flask ( TN8004 ) from Troy Meyers Conservatory in May 2016.  Seeds were sown in January 2015 ( link to photos of seeds).  This flask was derived from SlipperTalk collaboration ( link ). Actually, my plants are the second generation from the collaboration. My friend, Rick Lockwood, got pollen from Uri Baruk's plant ('Uri' = 'MC3991'), a...

I originally got this plant in 2012 from Carter and Holmes Orchids.  This plant (item # 8932) is from 'Z4636' x '6615',  They noted the lineage of this plant; "This is our own superior version of this species with almost black markings. The parents of '6615' are 'Newport' x 'Bitter Chocolate' and 'Z4636' is from the Orchid Zone." I learned not to expect too much from this plant when I find a start of flower shoot.  The buds ended up blasting (the bud wilts before opening) for the first 4-5 times.  As the plant became bigger and bigger, the timing of the blast became later and later. It finally managed to open one flower last year (the flower didn't last more than a week, so I couldn't take photos).  So this is the second time to see the flowers, and this year, it shot up 3 buds.  The plant might prematurely initiate flowering, but it may realize later that it doesn't have enough resource.  So as the plant matures...

Paphiopedilum appletonianum var. hainanense was originally described as P. hainanense , but it is considered to be a variety of P. appletonianum .  As the name suggests, this variety is from southwest  Hainan Island , China, located close to the border of China and Vietnam. So it is somewhat separated from mainland populations; the mainland  P. appletonianum can be found in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.  The variety was originally differentiated by more brightly colored flowers, and more boldly tessellated leaves than the mainland plants.  However, this widespread species shows a large amount of variations in both foliar and floral morphologies. Averyanov et al (2003), which is an excellent book, illustrates the amazing range of natural variations in the shape of staminodal shields, leaf coloration and the lip shapes of P. appletonianum .  The elevation range of P. appletonianum var. hainanense is 457-609m (1500-2000ft, Fowlie 1987). It is...

The original description of the species was based on a plant from Annam.  Cribb (1998) mentioned that Annam is current day Laos.  Averaynov et al (2003) speculated more specific type locality and it is supposedly from  Attapeu Province , located in the south-east corner of Laos.  I wonder where they got this supposition since the original description simply stated Annam ( pdf of the original desciprtion available here ).  According to this wikipedia , Annam is the name used for Vietnam before 1940's (also see this link to Encyclopaedia Britannica ). In 1985, after 80 years of the original description, this species was found in northern Vietnam ( Vĩnh Phúc and Thái Nguyên Provinces; Averyanov 1988), far from the original locality.  Averyanov et al (2003) mentioned an unconfirmed locality from  Lào Cai  and  Lai Châu Provinces, which are in the north-west Vietnam, and disjunct from the other northern Vietnam locality.  Additionally, ...

Paphiopedilum dayanum is named after a Victorian orchid grower and orchid painter, John Day.  It was discovered by Sir Hugh Low in 1856, and Day flowered it in 1860 (Cribb 1998).  The species has very small geographic distribution, and it has been only found on the lower slopes of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Borneo at the elevations of 300-1450m (Cribb 1998). The green/yellow tesselated leaves are beautiful, and the flower is pretty big (about 12 cm across).  I also think that the pattern on the backside of the lip/pouch is beautiful. I got this plant from Ooi Leng Sun.  I'm growing it in an intermediate condition; daily maximum and minimum temperature of 29/18C (85/65F) most of the year.  The light intensity (photosynthetic photon flux density, PPFD) is 220 µmol/m 2 /s (about 1500 footcandles) for 13 hours.  This is probably unnecessarily higher than what it needs. It is interesting that there are small horns at the bottom right and left of ...

This species is endemic to Sabah, Borneo.  It was described in 2001, and named after the discoverer, Mr. Mitsuru Sugiyama.  Dr. Tanaka's website has good information about the original description ( link ).  It is a rare species in nature according to the IUCN Red List report  from 2015. Although the flower is not showy by any means, I do like the subtle color and beautiful leaves. Close up of the staminodal shield. Yellow pollinium can be seen behind the stminodal shield. The petals gradually reflex backward over time.  It's a cool feature and it's kind of like the Spirit of Ecstasy  (well, this is probably a bit of stretch). The photo below is taken after 3-5 days of opening, and the petals are starting to curl back. This is after 8-10 days of opening. I think it will curl back more eventually. I got this plant recently (about 1 year ago) from Ooi Leng Sun .  It was a nice plant from the beginning, and started to grow r...

Paphiopedilum vejvarutianum was described by  Gruß and Röllke  in 2003.  There are several photos at Dr. Tanaka's web site .   Dr. Tanaka's site mentions that the species occurs  at the elevation of 500-750m,  near the  Vajiralongkorn Dam (formerly the Khao Laem Dam) in  Th ong Pha Phum District , which is a part of  Kanchanaburi Province  in Central Thailand.  Dr. Tanaka commented that although it was described fairly recently, the species was traded as  P. charlesworthii var. kanchanaburi since late 1970's. In Paphiopedilum 2nd. edition , Braem, Chiron, and Öhlund (2014)   considered that the original description is inconclusive and they questioned the validity of this taxon.  They included this as a synonym of P. barbigerum .  To me, the plant seems to be bigger than  P. barbigerum , but I don't know the extent of intraspecific variation in plant size within  P. barbigerum .  But ...