Paph concolor

[Dorsetman]

Brachysephalous paphs are pretty difficult in England, so if we keep them alive to flower a second time we think we are doing well ; so I show my pic with pride - never mind the horrible leaves , as a result of an equipment failure last March , when I came home from a 2 day absence and found the thermostat stuck and the temperature 45 deg. C. The reddish brown marks are burns I guess !. I lost one of the (then) four growths, but the other three survive although only one is flowering this year. But the new growths look OK, and in a few years, maybe, it will be back to looking good and flowering on several growths at once. The flowers then may be larger, and a more uniform yellow dolour, as they have been in the past.

[Daethen]

Very nice. The leaves are beautiful (ignoring the bad spots as told). I love the mottled leaves.

[etex]

Very cute bloom!

[rapidan]

I use to have concolor a long time ago, now I'm trying to find a good sib cross. It's actually on my wish list

[Dorsetman]

I think "good" and not-so-good is largely a matter of culture. I spent a couple of weeks in Thailand and Cambodia once, with guides, looking at them in flower in the wild,( and also in Orchid Farms, where mostly they were growing wild-collected plants by the hundred and thousand , and my broader conclusions were that they were all good, just that some were rounder than others, plainer than others, more darkly spotted, brighter yellow etc.- and I loved them all.
On strong clumps and in good years perhaps (?) they would all produce 4 flowers in sequence, maybe never more than two out at once. I other years, or other circumstances, maybe even only one flower ( or none - just like us ! ).
And the other interesting thing, perhaps, I never saw a really large clump. Unlike say, some of the Erias or Thunias I saw in the same places, where plants may have been even hundreds of years old, and covered several square yards or more , I never saw one with two flowering leads ! I reckon that they are relatively short-lived in the wild.
At least that gives me a good excuse for killing them - I say " I didn't kill it , it just died, its so natural"...

[rapidan]

Thanks for the info. I agree culture makes a huge difference, but coming from good genes also doesn't hurt...

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Great information and pretty slipper orchid, Geoff!

Cheers,
BD

[harvey]

nice flower. Thank you.
P.

[catttan]

Thanks, Geoff, for the picture and especially the info about concolor. I really envy you for being able to see theconcolor in the wild.We don't have concolors in Malaysia though I've met some fishermen in the Langkawi Islands who used to collect Paph niveum, who informed me that they have seen a yellow paph on some of the cliffs in Langkawi.

I agree entirely with you that all concolors are beautiful but I think some are more desirable than others. I saw one in a nursery that really had very good shape and substance but the owner wouldn't sell as he said he wanted to use it as a stud plant.I'm posting a picture of it and also pics of 2 of my concolors.

BTW I find concolor very easy to grow here unlike the niveum which are very slow growing, though the ones I have, were collected from the limestone hills just 10 miles from where I live
.

2 -3 flowers on a spike is normal but never 4.The best blooming I had from my clump was 4 spikes. I have neglected my clump of concolor and there must be about 30 plants there.

P1 One of my Paph concolor
P2 The one the vendor wouldn't sell
P3 The big clump of concolor - about 30 plants in an 8inch pot. Another pot of concolor next to it. The little puny plant in the small pot is niveum
P4 Another of my concolor. Beter shape and colour than the first.

[Dorsetman]

Ah, the one the vendor wouldn't sell - yes, I can see why. With a bit of care he would have an awful lot of plants to sell !

I have seen big clumps of many paph species in the farmers market at Chiang-mai , but by repute they won't sell to obvious Europeans , lest they are confiscated at Customs on the way out, and the purchaser tells the CITES people where they came from. One difficulty if I had thought to risk it is that usually Chiang-Mai was only the starting point for an expedition, and I would end up flying back to Bangkok a couple of weeks later, and 2 weeks as a part of a parcel in the bottom of my rucsac would probably mean a complete waste of money .
On one occasion in one of the National Parks, I picked up obvious orchid bulbs from the ground, where they had fallen in last nights storm ; Robert Dressler, in his Field Guide to the Orchids of Panama and Costa Rica, says that you can have a clear conscience doing that, because left were they were, they would surely die. I could guess at the genus of of some but not all, occasionally even guess at the species too. But on the way out of the Park I was stopped, my rucsac searched , the plants confiscated, and I was fined some sum of money ; my guide advised me to say nothing and pay up - which is what I did - otherwise, who knows, I might still be languishing in jail somewhere ! (joke).
In the same Park, Paph concolor in flower had been dug up by the Park Rangers, and planted out as bedding around the Office - and the plants they had used previously for the same purpose were piled high in several wheelbarrows waiting to be be put on a rubbish heap around the back - some loads had already gone there - those plants were a Cymbidium species - C.sinense, as I remember it.
Rules and regulation which make these various acts "correct" and allowable, just raise my blood pressure !