P. micranthum album

[Candace]

I want an alba micranthum. Bad. I'd love to breed with it, eventually. Don't think I'd ever be able to afford a BS alba sanderianum, but I'd love to see one someday!

 

[Hien]

I've been looking into alba species lately; hmmm an alba sanderianum...

Is there really one in existence?

 

[Hien]

I want an alba micranthum. Bad. I'd love to breed with it, eventually. Don't think I'd ever be able to afford a BS alba sanderianum, but I'd love to see one someday!

Candace, on ebay, I saw a small micranthum alba division listed for a brief moment last Saturday. Making a note to myself to see how high the price would be at the bidding end.
I think a day or two later, it disappear form ebay, wonder what happen to it.

 

[lienluu]

Is there really one in existence?

P. sanderianum album has not been discovered, to anyone's knowledge. There were rumours that one was in a collection in Asia, but it did not pan out to be anything of note.

 

[Candace]

Candace, on ebay, I saw a small micranthum alba division listed for a brief moment last Saturday. Making a note to myself to see how high the price would be at the bidding end.
I think a day or two later, it disappear form ebay, wonder what happen to it.

I saw the plant you are speaking of. I suspect someone contacted the seller and gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. Personally, the plant was sooo tiny it wasn't worth the risk of it dieing do to stress of postage. It what, had maybe 2-3 tiny little leaves?? I just got the var. eburneum(spelling?) from Orchid Inn and would like to get some other varieties as well but can't find any other types for sale.

 

[Hien]

I saw the plant you are speaking of. I suspect someone contacted the seller and gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. Personally, the plant was sooo tiny it wasn't worth the risk of it dieing do to stress of postage. It what, had maybe 2-3 tiny little leaves?? I just got the var. eburneum(spelling?) from Orchid Inn and would like to get some other varieties as well but can't find any other types for sale.

Funny that you mention that,
I thought to myself: "Hien, how would you like to kill this poor tiny tinny little plant" , so I decide to watch the bidding from the ring side.
Cause, knowing my exquisite dexterity, I would not want to try something that small ( In the past, I break bigger plants than that just from watering & washing them)

 

[Candace]

There's another now listed on ebay. It's a much bigger plant, but not as nice bloom. The thing is, I'm not comfortable buying such an expensive plant(you know the bids are going to shoot up) from an unknown seller. I'd rather know for sure that I'm getting what I'm buying and not be unpleasantly surprised when it blooms out. I bet you it goes for at least a couple hundred bucks and I don't want to gamble. I'd like to buy one from a reputable grower.

 

[lienluu]

On average, when P. micranthum album are available in the US, they sell for between $1,500-3,000 for a division. Sherwood Orchids was selling a few seedlings before they closed for $450 for a 1" seedling with three leaves.

 

[Heather]

Lien, are you speaking of micranthum or micranthum album?

 

[lienluu]

Lien, are you speaking of micranthum or micranthum album?

album. Though really good quality normal P. micranthums can and do go for 3,000 as well.

 

[Candace]

I didn't know Sherwood had any At that size they are worth their weight in gold!

 

[Candace]

Well, the latest one is now off ebay. Said it was pulled due to "listing error" but I again suspect someone made an offer for it. There was a current bid of over $100 with still like 5 days to go, so it must have been a nice offer.

 

[practicallyostensible]

Maybe this is a dumb question but, why are micranthum album so darn expensive? Are they just so rare that breeding is problematic because of genetic diversity? Do growers just not release a lot of plants so the price remains high? Is there some grower conspiracy that I am missing out on (maybe I need to lay off the X-files)?

 

[lienluu]

Maybe this is a dumb question but, why are micranthum album so darn expensive? Are they just so rare that breeding is problematic because of genetic diversity? Do growers just not release a lot of plants so the price remains high? Is there some grower conspiracy that I am missing out on (maybe I need to lay off the X-files)?

They are rare because naturally there are just very few of them (as is true of any species). Add to that the fact that micranthum just does not breed very productively. Even the normal form of micranthum is problematic when it comes to breeding and pods (if/when they take) often do not produce many seeds.

This even more true of P. micranthum album and very few people have managed to get flasks of them. The few people I know of who were able to get flasks of them weren't able to get more than 30-50 seedlings out of an entire pod.

Albinistic forms of species are valuable because they are just so rare. A division of the original plant of P. stonei album sold for $25,000. This is the only known example of an albinstic stonei. The same is true of many other albinstic Paph. species.

 

[practicallyostensible]

I had no idea about micranthum, how interesting. Thanks Lien.

 

[likespaphs]

i thought eburnum was the alba form, but i guess i'm wrong. would it be easy enough to explain the difference?

 

[Candace]

Here's a website that has a description of the different micranthum varieties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paphiopedilum_micranthum

 

[lienluu]

i thought eburnum was the alba form, but i guess i'm wrong. would it be easy enough to explain the difference?

eburneum is a normal coloured variety of P. micranthum from the Kwangsi area. It's very easy to tell a normal micranthum versus an eburneum, just by looking at the leaves. eburneum has smaller rounder leaves with a tighter pattern.

The flowers on eburneum have less pigmentation and often have a white pouch (but this is not always true).

Here is a photo of a P. micranthum eburneum album versus a normal P. micranthum album. You can clearly see the difference in leaf pattern and shape/size. THese changes would be true for a normal coloured variety of P. micranthum and P. micranthum eburneum.

 

[lienluu]

Here are two photos of the flowers of P. micranthum eburneum.

This first one, 'Huge Snowball' is more what one would expect of an eburneum flower.

This next one is an awarded clone of P. micranthum eburneum ('Wonderland' AM/AOS) however it does not have the nearly complete white pouch that is typically seen in this variety. However, the leaves (not shown in the photo) are typical of the variety.

 

[Candace]

Be still my heart. Where did you find the P. micranthum eburneum album? I'm also on the hunt for an alboflavun and glanzeanum. My birthday and Mother's Day is right around the corner and I deserve a nice gift:>


Oops, and sorry for taking over your thread, Heather...