Paph Papyrus: Two Cultivars

[Ross]

Paph Papyrus = Paph charlesworthii X Paph Earl of Tankerville. Registered in 1923 by Mrs. S. Gratrix, this cross parented 20 F1 offspring and 40 progeny overall over 5 generations. None have been awarded by the AOS, but this may be due to the fact that the majority of the crosses were registered in Great Britain, with many of the most recent ones by Ratcliffe. Perhaps Paul Phillips could comment.

Paph Papyrus 'Maybrook' This blooming may not be its best due to my clumsiness when I broke most of the roots off while dividing the plant in August. It's a real strong plant, though, growing great new roots and insisting on sending up two blooms on each division.

Paph Papyrus 'Model'

 

[goldenrose]

:clap: Two fine clones! :drool: I don't think I've seen Papyrus looking sooo good!

 

[SlipperKing]

A pair of book ends...Nice looking. Are you going to try to miniaturize them?

 

[NYEric]

looks nice.

 

[Ross]

A pair of book ends...Nice looking. Are you going to try to miniaturize them?

They are fairly compact. The whole plant picture shows the plant growing in a 4 inch round pot. I'm not sure if I'll use them for breeding, but I also like collecting "antique" hybrids.

An added advantage to growing these plants is that if they've survived 70 or 80 years under the care of various growers, they've got to be darn tough plants.

 

[biothanasis]

Very beautiful both!!!! Those shots are crystal clear!!! Well done!!!

 

[SlipperFan]

Good looking complexes.

 

[Leo Schordje]

Some 30 years ago I received a division of Papyrus 'Maybrook' as a gift for standing-up as Best Man in my friend's wedding. He was (still is) a Paph grower. It is still with me today, I think in high bud, but I need to go down there and look.

A great antique. My attempts at getting it to carry a seed pod have been unsuccessful, but that doesn't mean you can't get something good out of it. I would suggest henryanum, hermanii or helenae as the species pollen to use. Or use any nice round brachy hybrid as a pollen donor. I suspect as a pollen parent I would expect Papyrus to give rather poor yeilds.

 

[Ross]

Some 30 years ago I received a division of Papyrus 'Maybrook' as a gift for standing-up as Best Man in my friend's wedding. He was (still is) a Paph grower. It is still with me today, I think in high bud, but I need to go down there and look.

A great antique. My attempts at getting it to carry a seed pod have been unsuccessful, but that doesn't mean you can't get something good out of it. I would suggest henryanum, hermanii or helenae as the species pollen to use. Or use any nice round brachy hybrid as a pollen donor. I suspect as a pollen parent I would expect Papyrus to give rather poor yeilds.

Thanks for the ideas, Leo. One of the reasons I got started collecting these older complex Paphs was to give myself more genetic diversity in developing miniature complex Paphs. These older crosses may prove useful particularly if they are not polyploids. Some of the new helenae crosses from Taiwan such as In-Charm Topaz (helenae x Pacific Shamrock) may be infertile triploids. Large complexes such as Pacific Shamrock are most likely tetraploids which when crossed to a diploid species will yield triploids. This observation was made to me by a breeder who has far more experience than I. That said, I have gotten some (species x complex) crosses to breed onto other Paphs and produce viable seed.

 

[JeanLux]

Very nice !!! Jean

 

[Leo Schordje]

And if Papyrus is a triploid, yeild will be very low, only a few seedlings. BUT these few that do occur will either be full tetraploids or possibly some may reduce to diploids. But anything can happen. I know Klehm gave up breeding with Papyrus, but he would dump mother flasks if he didn't get 100+ seedlings at the time we were talking about these things. I don't know what his current breeding program is like.