Paphiopedilum braceanum

[kltower]

Greetings from Malaysia,

I grow orchids and nepenthes. I have a small collection of paph. Recently, in an orchid nursery which specialises in extotic orchids, I bought a Paph, labeled as P. braceanum. I have not come across this species in my books and on the net. Is this a new species or var of one of the paph species.

regards
Choong

 

[swords]

Hello,

Searching the web I come across only a few obscure references to the name you gave from the tag "P. braceanum". Results indicate it as a Phalenopsis (moth orchid) P. braceana, in the kindom/section braceanum. However, in the Phalenopsis Monograph by Eric Christiansen, he places P. braceana in Phalenopsis subgenus Aphyllae... Anyway, if the tag simply states "P. braceanum" then perhaps the nursery (or a browsing customer) stuck the wrong tag in the pot?

 

If you can post a pic of the bloom perhaps someone can ID it for you.

It's not uncommon - esepcially with orchid houses holding 10-20,000 or more plants for tags to get swapped around. I once bought a Nepenthes Judith Finn hybrid labeled "Butterwort" from a greenhouse!

 

[kltower]

Thanks Josh,

I see you are a fancier of orchid too. Unfortunate, the plant is not in bloom yet. The paphs that are blooming are niveaum, liemianum, stonei (just flowering), chamberlainanum (budding) and anthongxconcolor (budding).

BTW, I heard from the nursery that lowland rothchaildianum were discovered around Sibu, Sarawak.

regards
Choong

 

[swords]

If I remember correctly, P. rothschildianum is supposed to be a limestone specialist and does have a range in lower altitudes around 600 M. But any mention I have in books states that it is found only around Kinabalu in Sabah. Monographs do go "out of date" quite often however, anytime someone discovers something, everything changes!

The book 'National Parks of Sarawak' (by Hazebroek & Morshidi) states that the geographic makeup of the proposed Pelagus Park area near Sibu is sandstone and not limestone. However, this chapter only details the park area along the Rajang river from Kaki Wong to Runah Rapak. I'm sure this is probably only a very small portion of the Sibu areas geography. Are there any limestone formations to be found elsewhere near Sibu outside this park area?

It will be very interesting to see if it is proven that they are P. rothschildianum. Please keep me up to date on any news!

Those are some very nice Paph species in your collection! Many of which I'm looking forward to accuiring! Especially P. stoneii! I can't get enough of those species with vertical striped dorsals. I could go for a hybrid paph with a tiny slipper and an enormous striped 'ship sail' dorsal with red/black stripes on bright white background...

With all your flowering plants do you plan to hybridize? Have you been successful in selfing or cross pollinating your Paphs?

 

[Trent]

Hi Guys,
Had to get in on this one. I'm a Paph lover/grower too! That is really interesting about the low altitude roths. I've tried roths here in hot south Florida and they suffer. If a heat tolerant strain could be brought into cultivation...ahhh, that would be fantastic!
Hybrids are much easier. My pride and joy is a group of P. Prince Edward of York seedlings that are growing vigorously. Of course, Brachys do well here also. I've got a beautiful belatulum coming into bloom right now.
Choong, what are your night temperatures?

Trent

 

[kltower]

Trent,

Looks like we share the same passion.

The night temperate is between 28 - 24 C. may drop to 22C if there is really a heavy shower.

I used to place the paphs out in the garden (with netting) along with bulbphyllums, coelogynes, etc. This year I moved the paphs to the varendahs along with the naphs. I mist the plants twice or more daily and now I get more blooms. Even the hard to bloom highland Coelogyne xyrekes I bought in Cameron Highland, last Christmas, is blooming.

I evenn got N. macfarlanei from Cameron Highlands to pitcher.

Choong

 

[Trent]

Your night temps are like ours in summer. Some of the Paphs get a little pouty in summer, but there is a fan blowing over them (not directly on them) that keeps the air in gentle motion. Misting mid-day will cool, but I hestitate to mist at night because it invites fungal attack. On the other hand, the Nepenthes love an early evening misting to keep the night a little cooler and very humid. We have never had a fungus or disease problem with them because of it. Even so, N. sanguinea suffers thru our summer. I've tried macfarlanei and carunculata, only to see a slow dwindling death. Maxima seems fairly adaptive to lowland conditions. As for Paphs, multiflorals like stonei and phillipinensis are vigorous growers and easy to flower, as are their hybrids.
Trent

 

[swords]

Trent have you ever tried crossing your paphs?

 

[Trent]

Not yet. In fact, I had a student AOS judge look at the bellatulum last time it flowered and suggest if it blooms slightly larger, to sumit it to our regional AOS judging. It may be worthy of an AOS award. If I were to breed with anything, I would use it. Also, I brought in dozens of mottle leaf/Maudiae hybrids to sell at local plant shows, and one of the plants flowered as a really large, superior vini. Needless to say, we did not sell it. It is now part of our collection. If I were to make a cross, it would be those two. There's a guy down here who had his philipinensis awarded, and I know Krull-Smith uses it in their breeding program. Not only is it heat tolerant, but it's very fertile and vigorous. I know the original owner has divisions of it, but they are not cheap!

Trent