Paph richardianum

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Rick

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Leiper's Fork, TN
So been waiting for weeks to get a pic of the 3rd bloom open on this spike, and last flower has 2 holes punched in it by snails:sob::mad::mad:



anyway cool flowers on ridiculously 30inch long droopy spike.


If it wasn't for the big difference in flower size you'd think it was just a runt lowii, but there are other features that make it quite a bit different from lowii (as well as geography - comes from Sulawesi)


The 4th bract is still developing and swelling, so maybe I'll get 4 blooms this year??

 
Nice blooming!! They have a very big pouch to flower ratio. sulawasi is home to quite a few species
 
Thanks Rick. Can you expand on the differences to lowii? Why isnt it considered a forma of lowii?

You can find texts that place it as both a variety of lowii and distinct species.

However even if you put a richardianum next to the huge variation of lowii, it's more distinct from a structural standpoint than comparing say hirsuitisimum and esquirolii.

This flower has a span of under 9cm while lowii are typically 13 to 16 cm across.
Petal span and stature probably don't make or break how pollinators work the flower, but putting the rest of the flower to scale means that you would be using a smaller pollinator for this flower than for a typical lowii.

So without getting into talking points about variances in staminode shape, color, hair placement, pouch shape......I would agree with the splitters, in this case, that the dwarf, lowii like flower restricted to Sulawesi (as richardianum), is likely a distinct genetically/reproductively isolated species.

I think what is also interesting is that the range of what you see for richardianum is really very narrow compared to the variation you see in lowii.
 
Nicely bloomed Rick. Was grown/bloomed under heavy shade to explain the long inflorescence?

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
 
Nicely bloomed Rick. Was grown/bloomed under heavy shade to explain the long inflorescence?

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

It's in the SE corner of the GH that is probably the brighter part of the GH where I keep most of my vandas and roths., but it is on the bench under hanging stuff.

I would say the light is pretty middle of the road to high where this plant is.
 

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