Friday, April 30, 2010

Pretty picture: "Paphiopedilum delenatii?" Phragmipedium cv.


Yet another orchid from the Wallace's Garden Center show back at the end of March. This particular one kind of blew my mind. An orange Paphiopedilum? Who ever heard of such a thing?

Unfortunately, I suspect the name might not be correct. I mean, P. delenatii is the name that was on the plant, and it does look like a Paphiopedilum, but all of the P. delenatii pictures that come up on a Google image search were various shades of white and pink. Nothing was anywhere close to this crazy yellow and orange thing. So I'm deeply skeptical about the ID, and if anybody has any suggestions for what it might actually be, I'd be happy to hear them.

Pretty flower either way, though. Obviously.

(UPDATE: It probably is a hybrid Phragmipedium, says whygreenberg in the comments.)


6 comments:

BernieH said...

Now that is spectacular ... what a brilliant colour! I've never seen or heard of an orange one either. I'll have to find out if this is available over here.

Aaerelon said...

You've just blown my mind as well! I've seen huge diversity of flower shape and a bit of colour but that looks like it's been pushed to the extreme. Those look like some crazy comfortable slippers.

whygreenberg said...

Definitely not Paph. delenatii. This is actually not a Paphiopedilum. It's a related genus, Phragmipedium. Most likely a hybrid and not a species Phrag.

Ivynettle said...

My local botanical garden has a plant tagged Phragmipedium besseae (there's a picture in one of my early posts: http://ivynettle.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/a-blast-of-colour/>) - it's redder than this, but I guess it could be one of the parents. I remember someone saying it was only discovered rather recently - can't remember who or when, might have been one of the people working there, some orchid expert at the show, or just a sign...

whygreenberg said...

@Ivynettle: Yep! This is definitely not a Phrag. besseae (the coloring of this is a tip-off to the fact that it's a hybrid) but most assuredly has besseae in its parentage.

Paul said...

As whygreenberg has said, definitely a Phrag and a Phrag besseae hybrid at that. Might be a Phrag Don Wimber. As besseae has been used extensively in hybridization due to its tendency to contribute its coloration to it progeny, an exact ID is unlikely.