Paphiopedilum barbatum

[Rick]

Well crap, is this the year of mislabeled paphs for me or what? I have to say...out of all the orchids I've owned through the years paphs tend to be the most f*cked up label wise..you buy from reputable "breeders" and growers and consistently they're still not what you're supposed to be buying. Sorry to vent, but this is like the 3rd questionable paph this month for me. Looks like you're right Eric!

Well I've embarrassed myself twice in the last year or so too. A paph and a bulbo from reliable sources. One we could tell from the start based on the foliage, and turned out to be an alba maudie of indeterminate parentage.

I think "true" barbatum is going to always be a problem though given how close it is to callosum and overlapping ranges and all.

 

[Roy]

Just a thought, for those with or wanting species Jay Pfahl's site is a great reference point to check your flowers. You may know of his site, I find it a great site to check on plants I have. It doesn't help when you buy plants not in flower but in many cases creates or eases the suffering when they do flower.
http://orchidspecies.com

 

[Candace]

Ouch, Roy I feel your pain!

 

[Candace]

Yes, I go to Jay's site too. It's just that there are quite a few barbatums on the net that look very much like mine. I think Rick's statement about true barbatum and over-lapping areas is accurate.

 

[Rick]

I was just going through Koopowitz's checklist in OD 2000. Besides accounting for the differences in the number and alignment of the petal warts, and the petal stance as diagnostic characteristics he also references Karasawa's 1979 work that documented differences in chromosomal number between barbatum, callosum, and lawrencianum.

 

[Rick]

Just a thought, for those with or wanting species Jay Pfahl's site is a great reference point to check your flowers. You may know of his site, I find it a great site to check on plants I have. It doesn't help when you buy plants not in flower but in many cases creates or eases the suffering when they do flower.
http://orchidspecies.com

I would recommend going to the key before comparative picture browsing as the first step. There's a fairly recent one in Cribb's 1998 second edition. Braem probably has one too that's probably similar.

Hybrids and natural intergrades can really mess the key up though.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Candace, I have to agree with you...it seems that paphs are the most mislabelled plants around. Can be a real problem...as I discovered many years ago when I ordered seedling paphs and phrags, and the labels were mixed up...see how long a paph lasts in phrag culture! Now I know enough to tell the difference right away, but not in those days. I have yet to get a true insigne "Harefield Hall"...most moquettianums bloom out to straight glaucophyllum...and I once got a "Leeanum", "authenticated by Dr. Fowlie" that was clearly callosum sublaeve, even before bloom....But nothing beats Norris Powell's "creative" labels! Take care, Eric

 

[Roy]

Eric, just looking through various web site and magazine adverts, its quite apparent that not too many sellers know the difference between glaucophyllum and moquetteanum.

 

[WolfDog1 (C. Williams)]

I have 2 plants labeled as Paph callosum in bloom right now. I've tried to photo the blooms side by side. The general shape and overall color are very similar, but one is maybe 50% larger than the other. The larger one is a first bloom seedling while the smaller one has bloomed at least once before. I hope these pictures are ok.










Craig

 

[Rick]

Those are good looking callosum:clap: