Paph. stonei (slow-growing)

[aerides]

Originally Posted by Ray

Well... best I can tell, Paph. stonei 'Paul Parks' has not been awarded.

Thanks. I don't believe it even exists.

The three plants that would be involved in my mystery plant, given the possibility that it was mislabeled, are sanderianum, adductum and stonei. Adductum is the only parent that could have lent reduced size to its offspring. Stonei is a large species (as you know) and sanderianum is also large. Although I don't have personal knowledge of adductum, I've seen it described as a medium-sized plant. At any rate, the situation will be immediately apparent when it blooms.

I don't even see much point in contacting the vendor, except for the possibility of their admitting that the plant was mislabeled (and possibly getting some kind of credit for their mistake).

Ray, off-topic, is it possible to PM you? I'm having difficulty with a separate issue you might be able to help with.

Thanks.

[Jmoney]

the way it is written implies that it is a division, but of course I think that is not the case, since one would not have many divisions of any given stonei unless you had a plant for decades. maybe a selfing, maybe a sibling. the flower photo certainly is of stonei.

in a related vein, Ecua sells Phrag. humboldtii 'Fortuna' but as far as I can tell this means a strain they have been propagating via seed, and not divisions of a particular plant.

as a separate aside, our cultivar names and obsession with clonality is fairly unique to the 'western' orchid world. for example, in the neofinetia world a name does not imply clonality. the famous Hisui is a green flowered variety, and any progeny, seed grown or division, that harbor the traits of that plant (green flowers, narrow upright leaves) validly carry that name. same goes for tomatoes and most other plants.

[Roberta]

Also, one can stick a cultivar name on anything. Unless it is awarded, there is no registry of cultivar names. So while it would nice if the cultivar epithet meant "genetically identical to", nobody is policing it unless it refers to a specific awarded plant. "In the trade" it's likely meaningless. (Most genera can be cloned, but slipper orchids don't seem to lend themselves to that propagation method)

[aerides]

Alan from Seattle Orchids has been in contact with me, and has been very helpful.

He did contact his supplier about any confusion that may have happened and will let me know if he hears anything.
He also did a search for me online for a stonei 'Paul Parks' and located a Paph stonei var. 'Paul Parks' on orchids.org. No details. Curiouser and curiouser.

We decided to let it bloom, take a look, and go from there.
He's been very nice.

---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Roberta

Also, one can stick a cultivar name on anything. Unless it is awarded, there is no registry of cultivar names. So while it would nice if the cultivar epithet meant "genetically identical to", nobody is policing it unless it refers to a specific awarded plant. "In the trade" it's likely meaningless. (Most genera can be cloned, but slipper orchids don't seem to lend themselves to that propagation method)

Thanks, Roberta. I missed catching this until just now.

[aerides]

Update.

1) Vendor spoke to his supplier. She doesn't remember the plant but suggested that she may have gotten it from Paul Parks himself.

2) It's in spike! Hopefully mysteries will be solved in the foreseeable future.