Roth
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2006
- Messages
- 1,469
- Reaction score
- 388
Last week I visited Malaysia and Sabah, I discussed with the collector of the Paph. ooii. There is only one man who knows the location in Sabah, absolutely no one else, and except his brother in law, he never accepted or allowed anyone to come to the place it is coming from. He has been the only source for that species.
He had a funny plant, I will post the pictures in this thread tomorrow, a Paphiopedilum xkimballianum, rothschildianum x dayanum. The plant was the size of a rothschildianum, pointed leaves, mottled, 14 growths. Rothschildianum is still plentiful in the wild, and there are many locations in and outside the Kinabalu park. As for the natural hybrids, it is the fourth time I see a plant of it. I have seen before 2 plants in Ranau, at the War Memorial, 1 plant in a nursery on the way to Sandakan and 1 last week, much bigger than any of the other 3. Apparently it is not extremely rare or not extremely common, he said he founds usually 3-5 such plants a year. It is therefore not a legend, and that natural hybrid really exists.
As for ooii, the news were extremely disappointing in fact. There are still some colonies in the wild, but few. Most have been ordered by one famous Malaysian nurseryman over the years, who exported several hundreds with CITES - go to the Trade database www.cites.org
The interesting fact, the collector has seen 2 plants with more than 5 flowers per stem, one with 12 flowers. All the others were, according to him and the mass of photos he had, much smaller, with usually 3-5 flowers/stem maximum. The flower stem by itself is not that tall, 60-80 cm. There are Paphiopedilum topperii in the very same area, and a couple rothschildianum. They grow mixed with ooii. It would not be impossible that those 2 plants with 10+ flower stems are natural hybrids of ooii and kolopakingii. Nearly all the ooii plants are in fact the size of Paph. stonei, a little bit larger maybe, but not more, and not as huge as the plant used to describe that species. I expect that, whilst it is an extremely rare species in cultivation, when the legal plants exported to USA and Europe will bloom, there will be a disappointment on to those large stonei-like plants with 3-4 10-12 cm flowers the shape of an average praestans...
He had a funny plant, I will post the pictures in this thread tomorrow, a Paphiopedilum xkimballianum, rothschildianum x dayanum. The plant was the size of a rothschildianum, pointed leaves, mottled, 14 growths. Rothschildianum is still plentiful in the wild, and there are many locations in and outside the Kinabalu park. As for the natural hybrids, it is the fourth time I see a plant of it. I have seen before 2 plants in Ranau, at the War Memorial, 1 plant in a nursery on the way to Sandakan and 1 last week, much bigger than any of the other 3. Apparently it is not extremely rare or not extremely common, he said he founds usually 3-5 such plants a year. It is therefore not a legend, and that natural hybrid really exists.
As for ooii, the news were extremely disappointing in fact. There are still some colonies in the wild, but few. Most have been ordered by one famous Malaysian nurseryman over the years, who exported several hundreds with CITES - go to the Trade database www.cites.org
The interesting fact, the collector has seen 2 plants with more than 5 flowers per stem, one with 12 flowers. All the others were, according to him and the mass of photos he had, much smaller, with usually 3-5 flowers/stem maximum. The flower stem by itself is not that tall, 60-80 cm. There are Paphiopedilum topperii in the very same area, and a couple rothschildianum. They grow mixed with ooii. It would not be impossible that those 2 plants with 10+ flower stems are natural hybrids of ooii and kolopakingii. Nearly all the ooii plants are in fact the size of Paph. stonei, a little bit larger maybe, but not more, and not as huge as the plant used to describe that species. I expect that, whilst it is an extremely rare species in cultivation, when the legal plants exported to USA and Europe will bloom, there will be a disappointment on to those large stonei-like plants with 3-4 10-12 cm flowers the shape of an average praestans...