Can someone tell me what the parents of that natural hybrid are?
I have a cross made with it, and am curious of the contributions...
I have a cross made with it, and am curious of the contributions...
Yeah, one of his more laughable ideas. It's a species, everything points to it.highly speculative Ray.
If I remember right, Averyanov thinks one of the parents are hirsutisimum.
Possibly with helenae, barbigerum, or henryanum.
The weird thing is that it is for sure coming out of natural hybrids of henryanum some dozens generations ago, because the flower pouch, the plants, and the flower shape are nearly identical with henryanum... Or maybe they are just two sister species from a same ancestor, who knows...Yeah, one of his more laughable ideas. It's a species, everything points to it.
I think he missed the big pink pouch and focused on the wavy green dorsal with no spots.Averyanov pointed that it is an hybrid of esquirolei x helenae or something like that, where we wonder how herrmanii would have got the pink pouch from...
I do believe a key element in Averyanov's belief that it is a natural hybrid is his observation of distribution in the wild. He says he has only seen it occur as single individual plants (multigrowth plants, but only one individual at at location) sandwiched between helenae and hirsustissimum. He will see thousands of the the others, then a single x hermanii. If it were a species, one would expect to stumble on to colonies where there would be multiple different clones scattered in an area. This is one of the key items that convinces him that it is a chance hybrid. I am inclined to agree with his expertise, though who knows. Perhaps some DNA study in the future will shed light. If there ever is money available to fund that sort of research.
The story is a bit different for herrmanii, they come by batches of 20k-100kg+ ( though now a batch is about 5-10kg those days, a bit over collected), nowhere near hirsutissimum or helenae. In the early days Averyanov relied on the professional dealers to get most of his data, and they were always showing to him one or two plants, not more, sometimes a few, but never in the wild ( they are collected by the minorities only, who are not very keen to bring anyone, herrmanii was with vietnamense one of the best kept secrets in terms of real location...). At a point I did the same mistake, so I do not blame him...I do believe a key element in Averyanov's belief that it is a natural hybrid is his observation of distribution in the wild. He says he has only seen it occur as single individual plants (multigrowth plants, but only one individual at at location) sandwiched between helenae and hirsustissimum. He will see thousands of the the others, then a single x hermanii. If it were a species, one would expect to stumble on to colonies where there would be multiple different clones scattered in an area. This is one of the key items that convinces him that it is a chance hybrid. I am inclined to agree with his expertise, though who knows. Perhaps some DNA study in the future will shed light. If there ever is money available to fund that sort of research.
Averanov is a botanist contracted by the Vietnam government to survey and map the flora of Vietnam. The key interest is in the commercially valuable forest trees, such as the rosewoods and other lumber trees. He is locating high biodiversity regions for the planning of future national parks and reserves to protect the sources of the key economic species. The goal being conservation by preserving areas of high biodiversity. The orchids are his personal hobby, but he observes the orchids while he is doing his forest research. The point is he has more time on the ground in Vietnam as a professional botanist than any one else. I trust his opinion over many with less experience.