For you P. henryanum lovers

[Heather]

I stumbled across this site today, it's pretty old, but it has an interesting story about P. henryanum's namesake. I guess there was a documentary made!
It's a good warning... Be careful, first orchids, then...well, just read the article.

http://www.mythologist.co.uk/henryxfile.html

Makes you wonder what other Orchid 'Tales of the Weird' are out there.

 

[Heather]

Okay then, let's bring this back out of the weird, since no one will deign to respond. oke:

I didn't realize that P. henryanum had the same issues with naming as Phrag. kovachii/peruvianum.

I always wondered why Paph. Barbie Doll was named such. I didn't realize that Paph. dollii was, for a time, the official name of what we now know as Paph. henryanum. I love these sorts of histories, and I'd love to hear more about this sort of thing.

 

[couscous74]

You should read Orchid Fever. Henry Azadehdel's story is told in there.
Also made me lose all respect for Phillip Cribb and Kew. If Cribb was on fire at the side of the road, I might take a picture of it.

http://www.cnyos.org/hansenletter.html

 

[kentuckiense]

Say what you want about Cribb, but his monographs on Cypripedium and Paphiopedilum are far better than anything else out there. As opposed to many others, the man has actually seen most of his subjects in-situ.

 

[Mahon]

I have a few things to add... I think it may mention in 'Orchid Fever' that some of H. Azadehdel's "illegal" Paph. species were confiscated and taken to Selby Gardens. Even if it didn't, there are some of Azadehdel's Paph. species there... most of the Parvisepalum species are from Azadehdel...

I will say, I have NEVER seen a better Paph. armeniacum or Paph. malipoense before until I saw Azadehdel's confiscated plants... since I could locate his plants that were shown to me, I could find a pattern in the tags on the Paphiopedilum species. I could trace many plants of Paph. delenatii and Paph. micranthum to him... this was the first time I saw the "new-type" P. delenatii in bloom... also there were a few P. bellatulum, P. godefroyae, and a huge number of P. niveum, which were all potted together in a single, large pot. A tag marked 'Paphiopedilum sp.' was also there, with the same pattern. It was a very dark leaved strap-leaf Paph., and was MASSIVE. It later bloomed, and I identified it as a Paph. dianthum.

The confiscated Azadehdel Paphiopedilums at Selby are apparently nothing to those shipped out to RBG, Kew in England... well, I guess they forgot the best shaped and formed P. armeniacum and P. malipoense... =)

-Pat

 

[Jmoney]

I read orchid fever a long time ago and remember thinking it was heavily biased according to which people actually gave interviews to the author. I didn't buy the whole "attack dogs on the innocent CITES-abiding elderly" thing at face value either.