Paph micranthum, what varity is this?

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Hello,
Congratulation , that is paph. micranthum var. eburneum :clap:

:drool: Share with us the difference please!

:clap: Congrats Rick 'The King'! :clap:
The pressure is on to keep it alive, grow & rebloom it!
 
Those are definitely regular micranthum leaves. var. eburneum has much wider leaves, as kentuckiense said. Also, they have silver spots on a very dark green background, so the mottling is slightly different as well. It's a very nice micranthum, though!
 
Check out the pics from slipperorchids.info:

var. micranthum:
http://slipperorchids.info/paphdatasheets/parvisepalum/micranthum/Paphmicranthum(topview).jpg

var. eburneum
http://slipperorchids.info/paphdata...thum/Paphmicranthum(var)eburneum(topview).jpg

Here's a quick and dirty photo of mine. var. eburneum on left, var. micranthum on right.
eburn.jpg
 
I'm suprised it's so teenie! I can't wait to get one to bloom and to get some thaianums! Yay mini Parvis!!!
That sounds like a wonderful plant Eric.
I've bloomed micranthums before, granted this is the first eburneum if that is correct, but none of the others I've bloomed have been so little. I was very surprised to see that it was "teenie". I think on future bloomings it will be much larger.
 
Hey Rick,
I only play a taxonomist when prognosticating on the Web, I am not a real taxonomist. With that comment made, I have been growing and occasionally blooming micranthum var eburnum for many years. I do not feel your plant is eburnum. I think your plant is likely from Viet Nam. The description of micranthum var eburnum says they come from Kwong See (Cantonese transliteration of the Chinese province name) The leaves are a MUCH deeper blue green than the color of the leaves you have pictured. There are relatively few silver flecks in the leaves so the overall effect is a blue-black leaf color. The pouch is nearly pure white with just a hint of pink around the edges. The pouch interior does have the same dark spotting. The background color of the dorsals and petals are more yellow fading to white. Some eburnum flowers almost look albino.

(I read on the internet) There was a large (probably illegal, but don't really want to go there) importation of hundreds of micranthum collected in Viet Nam that turned up with a number of California growers in 1997. Most were sold as 'seed' raised plants, so their origin information was lost. (laundered)
They have the lighter colored leaves of type micranthum, but they have pouches that vary from bi-colored pink & white through to a nearly white pouch. They are not var. eburnum because that variety only comes from China, and has the very dark colored foliage. But because they have the white or mostly white pouch people incorrectly call them eburnum.

I recently bloomed a dwarfish micranthum that I am guessing is from that 1997 Viet Nam collection, though I would not be able to prove one way or the other where it came from. I am guessing your plant is from that same sub-population. Here is my picture. I think I would just leave the label as Paph micranthum, or micranthum Dwarf Variety, and resist the temptation to call it eburnum. You might also send your photos to Olaf, see what he thinks.

The foliage that Kentuckiense has posted as being var eburnum is too light, unless that light color is an artifact of the flash. I would doubt that his is true var.eburnum either. Sorry, not trying to be negative, that is just this man's opinion. The proof will be in the blooming. When my laptop gets back from the shop I will post images of both eburnum and normal micranthum. But that may be a few weeks away.
- Leo


micranthum1179-2009a.jpg


micranthum1179-2009b.jpg
 
My dwarfish micranthum has bloomed twice, and so far the trait seems consistient. Your plant makes the 2nd dwarf I have heard of. If your stays consistient, we may have stumbled into a new "variety" of micranthum. Because we do not have collection data, at best we could list this as a horticultural variety. We should not refer to it as a taxonomic variety. That would only muddy the water further. The foliage of your dwarf is nearly identical to the foliage of my dwarf.

On the same theme there is a dwarf form of armeniacum that comes from Yin Nan, I had seen a few a decade ago, but I think they were mostly lost because their flowers were not big enough for the growers to stay interested in them. I am keeping my eye out for this one also. Ross, you thinking about these in a breeding program?

I don't want to discourage anyone who may have paid extra for a micranthum eburnum, but there are really very few true var eburnums in the USA, and some of the dealers may actually not know the differance and may be unintentionally sell the slightly more common white pouch Viet Nam type wrongly thinking they have true var. eburnum from Kwong See, China. Regardless, I have never seen a micranthum that I did not find at least pretty to exquisitly beautiful. It is a wonderful species. All of them are a delight to bloom.
 
Thanks for the info Leo...At the time of the photo w/ quarter the flower measured ~1 inch across and 1.5 vert which is pretty teenie. I believe it has expanded more.
 
Well, I thought the small size was due to stress but maybe I am really surprised! It would be cool to capitalize on this unique trait.
 

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