Saccolabium quisumbingii - a little sweetie

[jimec]

Hi Geoff,

Your plant is Tuberolabium quisumbingii, named by Louis O. Williams in 1938 as Saccolabium quisumbingii in the BotanicalMuseum Leaflets Harvard University Vol. 6 number 5, pages 110/111.

The specific epithet honours Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing, a Filipino botanist/taxonomist, who named many orchid species from the Philippines, in conjunction with Professor Oakes Ames from the USA.

If one reads the original description of this species, there is no mention of a Consul - Baron Quisumbing. The only Quisumbing mentioned is Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing, who supplied Williams with the specimens used to describe this species. One can then safely assume that the plant was named for Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing.

All the best,

Jim Cootes
Author
The Orchids of the Philippines
Times Editions, Singapore, 2001

[ManilaByNight]

I love it. And from the Phillippines, I bet it tolerates warmth reasonably well. I think I might just need one of these!

Kathi

Kathi though you are correct that it comes from my country, the Philippines, but Tuberolabium Quisumbingii is endemic to our cool mountain forests up North.

Thus you have to be able to give it the cool, mossy, humid/misty environment that is typical of mountainous tropical cloud forests where it best thrives in. I guess Geoff won't have much of a problem in growing this since England does get pretty cold over there and his greenhouse provides much of the needed humidity the plant enjoys. The plant loves plenty of light and where it can regularly dry out in between mistings/humidity in the air. It likes a drastic temperature differential drop from day to night. Just imagine the environment if you are living up in a tropical cloud forest. (Hmmm .... that reminds me so much of Cxcanh's photos on his thread when he went up mountain climbing up in Vietnam's cloud forests in Fansipan.)

I am able to grow this here in Manila in my grow area where I can provide the humidity because of my daily watering and frequent misting but because I am unable to attain the very cool environment that the plant needs in order to induce it to flower, it just gets bigger and bigger but no flowers! Well, at least I'm happy that I am successful in growing it here in lowland Manila - who knows by some strange twist of "climatic" fate, it might just surprise me one morning when it does flower. Hmmm ..... the days and nights have lately been getting cooler here due to the November-December months .... who knows?

And yes, most in the Tuberolabium family is scented specially this one which has the heaviest perfume of them all. That is why I LOVE this orchid so much despite the small size of its flowers. One can be misled by the small size of its flowers - the perfume from this sweetie can really be so powerful! On close-up view, the Tuberolabiums sure have pretty, colorful flowers specially on its lip!

Cheers all!

[ManilaByNight]

nicely grown geoff!
this species is still out there in the wild. i also found it horrible how they collected orchids in the older days, especially e.sanderiana. thousands of trees were chopped down coz of that, and only a small percentage of collected plants survived those long trips back to europe.

Hey Ron you'd be surprised how many of our local orchid species like this still exist and growing abundantly in situ up in the Northern Luzon forests although quite selectively in some hard-to-reach and far-flung (or well-kept secret) areas. Despite the rampant collection of orchid species this is still one very resilient orchid growing out in the wild.

[Dorsetman]

[If one reads the original description of this species, there is no mention of a Consul - Baron Quisumbing. The only Quisumbing mentioned is Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing, who supplied Williams with the specimens used to describe this species. One can then safely assume that the plant was named for Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing.

The authority for my little story is Arthur Swinson , author of the book "Sander , the Orchid King" - which is a biography of Fred Sander who ran an enormous empire - with large nurseries in England and Belgium, and several collectors roaming the world, importing millions of orchids from all over the world around a hundred years ago.

Of course I don't have any personal knowledge - although ancient, I am not quite that old ! But clearly we have got the right man - and as to whether he was a Baron or not I don't know. Some of these titles are purely honorary , not inherited . ( Sander was really into royalty , said to be a personal friend of the King of France, ditto Belgium, etc - and one has to remember that at that time only royalty or very, very rich men could afford to grow orchids - a plant of Aerides lawrenceana was sold for the sum of 22000 pounds sterling which equals (say) 33000 US dollars , and in 1870 would have been the equivalent of a quarter of a million...) And as to being Consul - well that too is sometimes an honorary and temporry post - not a thing to put on your cv.


Author

[ManilaByNight]

The authority for my little story is Arthur Swinson , author of the book "Sander , the Orchid King" - which is a biography of Fred Sander who ran an enormous empire - with large nurseries in England and Belgium, and several collectors roaming the world, importing millions of orchids from all over the world around a hundred years ago.

Of course I don't have any personal knowledge - although ancient, I am not quite that old ! But clearly we have got the right man - and as to whether he was a Baron or not I don't know. Some of these titles are purely honorary , not inherited . ( Sander was really into royalty , said to be a personal friend of the King of France, ditto Belgium, etc - and one has to remember that at that time only royalty or very, very rich men could afford to grow orchids - a plant of Aerides lawrenceana was sold for the sum of 22000 pounds sterling which equals (say) 33000 US dollars , and in 1870 would have been the equivalent of a quarter of a million...) And as to being Consul - well that too is sometimes an honorary and temporry post - not a thing to put on your cv.


Author

Could it be that the author of the book (Arthur Swinson) you are referring to might have been wrong?

As far as every scientific publications on this matter, up to this date, it is widely accepted that the plant was named after Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing.

Just my thoughts ...



**************
Eduardo QuisumbÃ**ng y Argüelles (1895-1986) was a leading authority of the plants of the Philippines and wrote many taxonomic and morphological papers on the subject, including 'Medicinal plants in the Philippines' (Manila 1951).

He received the Distinguished Service Star (1954) for outstanding contribution to the field of systematic botany; Diploma of Merit on Orchidology and Fellow Gold Medal, Malaysian Orchid Society (1966); Gold Medal, American Orchid Society and 1975 PhilAAS Most Outstanding Award. The plant 'Saccolabium quisumbingii' has been named in his honour.

**************

http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/facts...rdo_quisumbing

[ManilaByNight]

May I add that although that I am no history expert, I have never ever heard or read of a "Baron Quisumbing" who ever became a consul of Manila - even during the Spanish period in the Philippines. I strongly think that this particular (mis) information of Philippine history is all wrong.

[Dorsetman]

Of course the book may be wrong ;or maybe the "two" Quisumbings are one and the same ?

[walingwaling]

Hey Ron you'd be surprised how many of our local orchid species like this still exist and growing abundantly in situ up in the Northern Luzon forests although quite selectively in some hard-to-reach and far-flung (or well-kept secret) areas. Despite the rampant collection of orchid species this is still one very resilient orchid growing out in the wild.

hi jojo,
yes, i really hope there are plenty of orchids still out there. as for the tuberolabium quisumbingii, i've seen em in mindoro growing below the cloud forest in very hot and dry conditions, so its adaptable.

[Dorsetman]

[QUOTE=jimec;209496]Hi Geoff,

The specific epithet honours Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing, a Filipino botanist/taxonomist, ....

I just got offered a two volume set of the complete writings of Dr Eduardo Quisumbing , by an antiquarian bookseller. I had them on approval ( didn't buy). It seems that your man was born in 1895 .
The tale I copied from the Sanders biography is relating events which took place before this Dr Quisumbing was born - Vanda sanderiana ( or whatever genus you want to place it in ) was introduced into Europe maybe 20 years earlier, so there could well have been a Quiisumbing who helped Sanders collector get to Mindanao but that couldn't have been your man .
But I have to agree that since my plant ( The Tuberlabium/Saccolabium seemed to have been first described in 1938 it is more likely to have been honouring the later of these two gentlemen with the same name . In short I jumped to a conclusion which turns out to be unjustified. mea culpa.
ps I have your book on my shelves too , and since I have now found a Phillipines orchid nursery which visits Europe, who are willing to post a parcel to me in UK from their next show in Germany , it will now be more useful and less tantalising in enabling me to add a few more of your endemics to my collection !

[ManilaByNight]

............... and since I have now found a Phillipines orchid nursery which visits Europe, who are willing to post a parcel to me in UK from their next show in Germany , it will now be more useful and less tantalising in enabling me to add a few more of your endemics to my collection !

Hmmm ..... I can only guess who that particular "Philippine orchid nursery" who visits Europe frequently is.. Unfortunatley, I can't name the vendor here .