Paphiopedilum hookerae

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jokerpass

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Paphiopedilum hookerae (Mallingham HCC x Joanid)

Paphiopedium hookerae is a very rare orchid to find in cultivation. It is a slow growing Paph. It took me more than 10 years to find it in Canada and I finally found it from Flora Peculia in Toronto last year (2019 Spring). This is its first bloom. The flower spike is 30cm tall only which is on the short side for a Paph. hookerae.
 

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There is nothing wrong with the leaves. They are cinnamon powder, they are cat deterrent. The cats eat orchid leaves if I don't put them after each watering. I put cinammon powder on all my orchids except cattleya. The cats don't eat cattleya leaves because they are hard. They just use them as a scratching post sometimes, but they don't harm the cattleya orchids in general.
 
Cats...grrrrr....I have just troubles with them.....one uses my cyp bed as lavatory....protection against cats:
 

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Again nice flower but no upper notch to the staminode. I don't believe it to be pure hookerae. I'm sure I will have the same issue with the two I have and are about to open.
 
There is a big notch at the bottom of the staminode, is that what you mean?
Paph hookerae and Paph volonteanum look so similar especially there is so much breeding. I know that Paph volonteanum is a colder grower than Paph hookerae. I grow Paph hookerae warm all year around.
 
There is a big notch at the bottom of the staminode, is that what you mean?
Paph hookerae and Paph volonteanum look so similar especially there is so much breeding. I know that Paph volonteanum is a colder grower than Paph hookerae. I grow Paph hookerae warm all year around.
 
If I knew well, the difference between hookerae and volonteanum is the different pigmentation.Backside of the leaves are depigmented, green at hookerae and pigmented with red at volonteanum.I have 4 hookeraes and have no pigment on leaves at all.
 

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yes, I know about this. However, there is so much breeding I don't even know if you can use the pigmentation on the underside of the leaf as a marker to id hookerae vs. volonteanum anymore....some people's hookerae has pigmentation but very lightly pigmented.
 
For this plant, I just checked the pigmentation. The oldest leaves (bottom 2 leaves) do not have pigmentation at all. The newest leave has the most pigmentation (light, not so heavy). the leaves in between the oldest and newest leaf have some pigmentation but not as much as the newest leave. It appears that the pigmentation disappears as the leaf gets older.....this is wierd, maybe it is due to the breeding....I dont know.
 
yes, I know about this. However, there is so much breeding I don't even know if you can use the pigmentation on the underside of the leaf as a marker to id hookerae vs. volonteanum anymore....some people's hookerae has pigmentation but very lightly pigmented.
The little tiny notch at the top of the stami you look for, most all have a bottom of some sort.
I've had hookerae in the past and I have 2 now, they are all green on the underside. My volonteanum all have maroon in various degrees. DrLeslie has already check the Mallingham clone and its hookerae. The pollen parent of this cross is the one I question. I'm not able to locate a pic, a description or even a source where it comes from. Until something legitimate comes along for the pollen parent I say this cross is a hybrid. Hybrid vigor is probably why everyone is blooming this cross right now, including myself. Neither of these species is easy to grow and bloom well, especially for everybody.
 
I am reading the description of Paph hookerae and Paph volonteanum in a book called "The Genus Paphiopedilum Natural History and Cultivation" volume 2 by Dr. G. J. Braem.

Paph hookerae: "The leaves of Paphiopedilum hookerae are elliptic-oblong, deep reen, distinctly tesselate with grayish-green to yellowish-green, and the undersurface often is suffused with red." quote pg 279. The 2 pictures of Paph hookerae only have a notch at the bottom of the staminode, there is no upper notch.

Paph volonteanum: "In general, the description under Paphiopedilum hookerae can be followed. The leaves are proportionally narrower and spotted purple on the underside, the petals are broader and more obtuse, and te lip is more constricted below the orifice. The petals are about 1 inch (2.5cm) wide, bright purple at the apex, and intensely spotted with purple toward the base. Paphiopedilum volonteanum, however, is a highly variable species occuring over a vast range of altitudes " P284

Within this complex, two taxax, Paphiopedilum hookerae and Paphiopedilum volonteanum, have been described at the species level. There is no doubt that the two concepts are very closely related, and most authors have hitherto treated them as two varieties of the earlier concept, Paphiopedilum hookerae. The same view is taken by the registrar of orchid hybrids at the RHS. The judges of the American Orchid Society have not been consistent in their treatment. Some plants of Paphiopedilum volonteanum have been awarded as such while others were awarded as Paphiopedilum hookerae var. volonteanum. The differences between the two taxas are indeed very subjective, especially in view of the fact that Paphiopedilum volonteanum has proven to be extremely variable in respectto the shape of the petals, lip, staminodal shield, and the characterstics of the leaves. Some low-elevation population of Paphiopedilum volonteanum show leaves that are as broad as those normally considered typical of Paphiopedilum hookerae and have purple markings underneath only at the base. This variation is not surprising considering that Paphiopedilum volonteanum occurs from 200 ft (60m) to 7500 ft (2300m)." pg277

Sounds like you cannot easily distinguish the differences. Sounds like even in the wild, Paph volonteanum and Paph hookerae can probably pollinate each other and you cannot tell.
 
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