Paph. hirsuitissimum

It doesn't seem particularly hairy -- or does it? I don't have an esquirolei in bloom to compare.

Thats a lovely flower Dot. Lack of hairs is a concern, my thoughts are that before esquirolei was recognised & known as a form of hirsutissimum, the 2 were crossed to give bigger & better hirsut's. Some growers/hybridists may be using a plant of this combination as a parent under hirsutissmum.
They may have sold division under this pretext also. P. esquirolei doesn't have any hairs whatsoever & when crossed to hirsutissimum a distinct reduction of hairs on the progeny flowers results.

Thanks, Roy.
I'd sure like to see a nice side-by-side comparison.

It may not be hairy, but it has those lovely pink petal paddles that I just
love. The shot from the side of the bloom is amazing.

There are lots of pics on the net but its darn hard to get genuine of either Dot.

lovely.
Thanks for the info Roy.

Hi Dot,
I think Cribb and some of the others feel the distinction between hirsutissimum and esquirolei is fairly arbitrary, with many intergrades being found in the hobby. There are distinct geographic races of the greater complex of hirsutissimum, but without a clear provenance to collection locations, it is difficult to be very specific about whether a plant is one or the other. However the classic hirsutissimum has 2 obvious traits. 1. moderate to dense long hairs on the ovary. The hairs are on the order of 1/4 inch or longer and can be fairly dense. 2.) the flower stem tends to be shorter than the leaves, flowers are displayed out and low, below the leaves, facing out, under the leaves like some Masdevallia or Chondorhyncha.

Esquirolei has either a bald ovary or an ovary with short hairs, definitely at or under 1/4 inch. I would say your plant has sparse, and short hairs on the ovary - shorn as the name esquirolei means, it doesn't mean bald.
2.) clearly the photo shows that your flower stem is longer than your leaves, the flower is nicely displayed above the leaves. This is classic esquirolei for this trait.

So your name tag could remain hirsutissimum, meaning the generic, all inclusive use of the name as Cribb and other lumpers would label it. Or you could label it esquirolei, which is what I would do, as it has both traits that a casual horticulturalist could see that are normally used to separate the two forms.

The "true" hirsutissimum isn't often seen these days. So just based on probability, your plant has a higher probability of being esquirolei. Hirsutissimum has a reputation for being a little more difficult to grow than esquirolei. I know, I have one, and it is much more sensitive to potting mix breaking down than my esquirolei. I almost lost it twice over the last 2 decades for that reason. (yes, I've had this one clone for over 20 years) Hirsutissimum seems to need a sharp cooling off in autumn to get it to bloom, where esquirolei don't seem to care one way or the other. As a result of almost loosing it, I have only bloomed my hirsutissimum maybe 3 times in the last 20 years, hope to see it bloom this year. My esquirolei tend to bloom every year if you don't divide down into small one growth divisions. There may be other differences, but I can't think of them now. Hope that helps.

That does help, Leo.

I have several plants labeled either esquirolei or hirsuitissimum. I give them all a month or so of no or very little water in the winter, and have them in the cooler side of my greenhouse. This plant is blooming for me for the first time since I purchased it 3 years ago in bloom. The others have bloomed once for me, but not this year. So maybe they are all esquirolei. Or maybe as Roy suggested, it/they are all a combination of both.

Thanks Leo - very helpful!

I'm not paph expect, but i just went to orchids show this past weekend and saw many both esqurolei and hirsutisismum.

what i notice, all the esquirolei plants are gigantic. The leaf are a foot + long and flower are larger with most arond 7-8" across. Also the size of the leaf is 1-1.5 inch across.

P. hirsutisismum has much smaller flower, and it has typical narrow leaf like yours.

Nice Dot

In my case, I find my hirsutissimum flowers much more than my esquirolei. I can't even remember when I last flowered my esquirolei. I recently bought another clone of esquirolei so hopefully that flowers better.

Nice flower. Congrats.