Unk Stanhopea...
Hi Jane... Scotty here...
simply beautiful... and a great photo too...
your question about the name has sparked me to dig into
my archives... because I think I've seen something similar before.
The three distinguishing characteristics that help me are...
1. the 'eye spot' on the upper sides of the lip...
2. the 'horn-like' projections as the side-lobes of the lip...
3. the absence of a saccate [sack-like] projection at the base of the lip.
The 3 main species that fit those criteria are...
oculata...
costaricensis...
embreei...
all of the above have various degrees of 'spotting' on the sepals and petals...
but that alone is not a determing factor... as 'alba' forms are known to occur.
My best SWAG... [Scientific Wild A**ed Guess] is that it is an 'albescens' form of the species Stan costaricensis.
I've attached a pic [not mine]... of what is the closest example that I have in my archive.
one other note... because I think it has a strong potential to be something unusual... [the alba form of something fairly common]...
I would like to ask you if you would consider pollenating 2 of the flowers in an attempt to produce some seed...
you could use the pollen from a flower on one stem... and place it on a flower from another stem... sorta switch between the 2 stems of flowers... the pods [1 on each stem] should not tax the plant too much... and it would be a neat experiment to see if the results bloom the same... or are a mixture of colored and alba forms.
Contact me directly if you would like to do what I suggested... and i can help you if you get stuck... and I'm willing to bear the costs of doing a couple of flasks.
Regards... Scotty.
