Monday, January 9, 2012

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Lawless Zauberflöte

To answer the obvious question: Google Translate renders "Zauberflöte" as "The Magic Flute" in German.


I might have gone with something more like "Paphiopedilum Lawless Really Fucking Yellow," but that's me: no imagination.

Also I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if it were mislabeled, since 1) almost everything at the show was to some degree or another and 2) the coloration is similar but different on all the photos that Google Image Search comes up with. Specifically, the long, narrow petals (sepals? I forget which is which, on orchids.) to the left and right usually have some brown or pink streaks or spots in them.

Of course, those photos are posted by amateurs and/or eBay sellers, and can't necessarily be trusted either. So it may not be Paphiopedilum Lawless Zauberflöte, but there's a solid chance that it's at least a Paphiopedilum. And failing that, I'm like 95% certain it's an orchid.

Maybe only 90%.


7 comments:

Tom said...

It could actually be an alien. You never know.

Ivynettle said...

Google Translate is correct there (kinda sad, it's sometimes so hilariously wrong), and I might add that it's the name of an opera by Mozart. Not that I know a thing about operas, except that they'll make me run away screaming, but I was tortured with Austrian composers all through school.

Stephanie said...

Haha! Every time I try to update my plant list, my thought process greatly resembles this post. Cultivar names can be terrible enough and taxonomists only try to further complicate things more.

Acanthorhipsalis incahuasina turns into Rhipsalis monacantha which then turns into Lepismium monacanthum and next thing I know I'm at some plant society trying to trade a plant that no one's heard of.

Am I growing Euphorbia 'Nothowlee' or Euphorbia 'Blackbird'? Or are they both the same since the first name was utterly terrible? Too bad every nursery uses a color filter on their images which only furthers my confusion.

Pat said...

I am not an opera fan, to say the least, but there is something rather compelling about the Queen of the Night Aria from The Magic Flute. My last ex got bothered on the bus because some lowlifes were playing their ghetto blaster so she drowned them out by singing this Aria. I could hardly breathe for laughing. Her comment afterwards "I thought we were all supposed to bring our own music."

"The Wrath of Hell is burning in my heart...if you don't kill Sarastro, you are no longer my daughter"

2.15 onwards if you want to miss the campest dialogue for the first two, the last is faster.


Scary, German, perfect



Subtitled, not murderous enough



English, scary, weird.

Emily said...

Looks like a wasp to me. A sexy wasp...

Kenneth Moore said...

The mother in that English version looked like a cross between a Klingon and a Cardassian. But maybe that was just the video quality on my iPhone.

Pat said...

Kenneth, you are about right in your Star Trek taxonomy, I would say.