Another trip through the Orchid Conservatory

[Dorsetman]

Is there an obvious way to tell a paph from a phrag just by looking at it? .

I once heard the German taxonomic botanist who has written some books about Paphs - Guido Braeme - give a talk, and at the end asked him exactly the same question. His reply - "that's an interesting question - if you find an answer, let me know" . I think it is a lot of tiny points which you recognise when you have looked at a lot of plants, but if one tries to write them down, it takes pages, and there are always exceptions ; for example, I was going to point to the shape of the pouch , particularly the intured rim - very different from a lot of paphs, but then I thought of micranthum and the other chinese paphs all of which are like most phrags in this respect , then I thought of the shape the pouch in general , that is distinct, but takes lot of explaining.

[mauraec]

I once heard the German taxonomic botanist who has written some books about Paphs - Guido Braeme - give a talk, and at the end asked him exactly the same question. His reply - "that's an interesting question - if you find an answer, let me know" . I think it is a lot of tiny points which you recognise when you have looked at a lot of plants, but if one tries to write them down, it takes pages, and there are always exceptions ; for example, I was going to point to the shape of the pouch , particularly the intured rim - very different from a lot of paphs, but then I thought of micranthum and the other chinese paphs all of which are like most phrags in this respect , then I thought of the shape the pouch in general , that is distinct, but takes lot of explaining.

Thank you, Geoff. I went through exactly the same analysis about the pouch, only to find that there are indeed, particularly some hybrids, Chinese paphs that look very much like a phrag - particularly phrag. bessea and schlimii. I've tried looking at the staminodes, which are supposed to be distinctive, but again,a variety of hybrids in both genera fooled me again. Although I have a paph. delenatii, as well as a paph. Lynleigh Koopowitz, both are too young to flower, and too much in shock from the Great October Massacre when I went on vacation - but I have to admit, they're probably also in shock from my extremely amateur care (I've had these since April, and am gratified only that they are still alive, barely). Regardless of the cultivation issue, I realize that I have an involuntary reaction to the Chinese paphs; I don't at all like how they look like helium balloons in the process of deflating. That gut instinct helps a bit in identifying, because I have discovered that, at least for besseaes and schlimiis, it is completely absent - I like them very much, though I am not crazy about the hybrids between them and the longifoliums, wallisiis, and other bizarre "bad hair day" species. I am avoiding learning anything whatsoever about Cypripediums, as a brief glance at them started the confusion all over again, and I'm unlikely ever to have any. In fact, although I have about 35 paphs, I may well find myself without any within a few months - windowsill- and patio-grower that I am. I have read that phrag. cultivation is often best done in s/h, with extremely pure water, and that they need cattleya-type conditions rather than the paphs that lean more toward phal conditions. Well, depending on how far away they get from my south-facing sliding glass doors, they will get whatever conditions I have room for - which is none, to be frank, but hardly an obstacle for someone who has combined retail therapy with orchid fever and impulsive/compulsive behaviors to the tune of 75 or so sort-of growing okay plants.

I appreciate immensely your story about Guido Braeme - I have inundated myself with harold Koopowitz and come out with a hodge-podge of knowledge that, at this point, is probably more dangerous than useful. But I'm trying. I have managed to spike an angraecum sesquipedale that I massacred in September and, whether it ever actually blooms, am now living a blissful grower's fantasy that I actually cultivated something semi-successfully.