It is very possible that it's either a piece of the awarded plant, or a selfing of it. I don't think it was ever mericloned. But I think that Santa Barbara Orchid Estate got a hunk of it (maybe most of it) and they've been selling pieces from time to time, probably where Orchid Design got it. (There's a fair amount of incest on the left coast...) I have a small piece (that was leafless and rootless when I got it, slowly recovering...) that I got along with some other things that I inherited after taking care of the Rowland Collection plants in Pat Rowland's last years after her manager was disabled by a stroke. But I know that quite a few Rowland plants ended up at Santa Barbara Orchid Estate over the years, and I suspect that was one of them.

It was sold as Stanhopea nigroviolacea ‘Predator’ FCC/AOS. IF it was a selfing, wouldn't it be labeled Stanhopea nigroviolacea ‘Predator’ FCC/AOS x self? She said it was a division of the awarded plant, and it was expensive af, so I tend to believe her.

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And if it is such a fine plant, the finest example of the species according to some, I wonder why it has never been mericloned? Are Stanhopeas hard to clone or something?

I don't know for sure that it hasn't been cloned... SBOE may have done it, original owner Rowland didn't, they selfed it. (I do have 'Predator x self') So possibly it was cloned after all

I'll try to find out how our orchid society member got the one I have now.