Awhile ago I was browsing in an antique book store and found "Indian Orchids: A Guide to Identification and Culture" by U.C. Pradhan, one of India's foremost orchid experts, and the progenitor of a long line of Pradhans recently figured in Orchids Magazine. I was pleased to find this - it was old, cheap, and had a number of interesting natural hybrid records in it I'd never seen before or since. It turns out that, much like Averyanov's work in Vietnam, there is rampant hybridization in naturally occurring slipper populations, but always limited to a few plants out of thousands. The only people who would ever see such things were the collectors out in the field prior to exporting to the US. And maybe Ray Rands or like personages who did a great deal of importing. One of these, the natural hybrid of venustum and fairrieanum, was named Paph. xpradhanii after one of Mr. Pradhan's relatives. Of course, ony a few were ever found, and I have never found any references to them in US literature. So imagine my surprise at finding a few in an old collection of a good friend of Ray Rands!! I bought one, flowered it, and took it to judging; it seems dead in the middle of venustum and fairrieanum in terms of flower qualities. Here it is, named after my newborn son (5 weeks old!!): Paph. xpradhanii 'Kate's Baby' CBR/AOS. (photos by Eric Hunt)
That's a nice cross! It shows the fairre in the dorsal & has the veining in the pouch like venustum!
