Phalaenopsis honghensis or wilsonii?

[lanhua]

honghensis or wilsonii, that is the question.

[Cjcorner]

Oh wow...I like that! I've been looking at specie phals...i'd love to find this one.

[orchidlady]

After reading Christenson's descriptions and looking at the photos, I would say honghenensis. The lip on wilsonii is heart-shaped (obcordate) with a distinctive apically notched midlobe. The lip midlobe on honghenensis is more oblong. Wilsonii also typically has longer spikes and more flowers. He also mentions that honghenensis has a short nipple-like spur, but the photos provided don't show detail in that area of the flower.

Susan

[Brutal_Dreamer]

It is very nice.

Cheers,
BD

[lanhua]

Susan, another pictures from the same slab.

[delphiguy]

beautiful... thanks for sharing.

[orchidlady]

I've been looking at a lot of pictures of both honghenensis and wilsonii and to me it is really hard to tell. Christenson also makes note that a lot of plants labled as wilsonii are actually honghenensis, so this adds to the confusion. The second picture on the new photos looks like there might be a little bit of a spur (also looks like there might be a scale insect ). Here are a couple internet photos that I found. The first shows a good picture of the spur (behind the lip structure) on honghenensis:



This shows a good example of the heart-shaped lip/apical notch on wilsonii (flower at the bottom):



So, I guess I would say that if it has the spur, then it is honghenensis, if not then it may be wilsonii or even a hybrid between the two.

Another interesting note, some taxonomists group them together as synonyms of each other.

Susan

[lanhua]

Susan, thanks for your explanation.