I have always loved this little hybrid and after seeing thousands of mottled-leaf hybrids never really was convinced that the parentage was accurate as registered. It grows vigorously into a specimen plant in no time, it blooms its little head off with fantastic dark flowers in my cooler environment, and has survived temporarily horrific conditions over the years that should have killed even bindweed.
The three cultivars of Paph. Varvara I have in my collection are labeled 'Penn Valley', AM/AOS (acquired from Norris Powell); 'Searle 13', HCC/AOS (acquired from Bert Wright); and 'Nisqually', HCC/AOS (acquired from the collection of Maurice Powers via Baker & Chantry). [What a bummer - all those amazing orchid people are gone now.] There might be some mislabeling, but I honestly cannot find a significant difference in the three that could not be explained away as a normal year-to-year blooming variation that one might expect to see from the same cultivar.
Based on those observations this one appears to have a story similar to that of Paph. Ernest Read, i.e. - Questionable parentage, same cultivar very liikely awarded several times under different varietal names, but most importantly: highly desirable in most collections.
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