Paph. villosum var. annamense (or not)

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

lori.b

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2020
Messages
365
Reaction score
644
Location
Ladner, B.C
I bought this plant as a seedling a few years ago as Paph. villosum var. annamense. It's clearly just using that name as an alias. Last night at my orchid club's monthly show table judging one of the judges pointed out that it most likely has spicerianum in it and thinks it's probably one of the older hybrids (he's an AOS judge so knows his stuff). I did some detective work today and believe what I actually have is Paph. Lathamianum, a cross between spicerianum and villosum. What are your thoughts? Does anyone grow this hybrid for comparison? It has a large glossy flower measuring 11.5 cm vertically and 11 cm horizontally.
 

Attachments

  • 309626A1-88D6-4D30-965D-59968F15EBF8.jpeg
    309626A1-88D6-4D30-965D-59968F15EBF8.jpeg
    1.5 MB · Views: 0
While it looks very, very similar, and that may well be a brilliant guess to the plant's identity, you can't be sure this is that hybrid.

It could be a villosum like complex hybrid crossed with spicerianum or a backcross of Lathamianum with villosum (Chrysotoxum).

I'd always leave a massive question mark on the label and that it was bought as villosum var. annamense.
 
My guesses are aligned:
Paph. Lathamianum (man made cross of spicerianum x villosum made by Latham in 1888) or
Paph. x lushuiense (natural hybrid of spicerianum x villosum discovered in 2009 )

I have seen much more Lathamianum's around than x lushuiense , so most likely it is the first one, but as suggested, keep that tag with a big question mark and don't use a guessed name for any future crosses.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I haven't changed the name tag but if I do it will have a question mark attached. I may try to reach out to the vendor too but he's now retired and living overseas for part of the year so it may take a while. I like the flower and the plant has been easy to grow so it's a keeper no matter what the name.
 
Back
Top