wardii or occulata?

[bcub30]

Got this one as an unknown species from Hoosier Orchids back in 05. Huge blloms with a powerful sugary scent!

Any clues?

Scott

[Frdemetr]

Scott,
The correct identification of these Stanhopeas is a great problem; as Dr Jenny stated, the color is not a criterion, the lip morphology is the main characteristic of a species.
Your Stan has a 90º knee in the hypochil (wardii knee is more opened) and the proportion hypochil/epichil is different of wardii's.
The spots patern looks like Stan oculata; the "sugary scent" is the vanilla/chocolate one? In that case I guess oculata!
Anyway I'll take a look in Dr Jenny's book, 'cause are a lot of similars species in this group.

[bcub30]

Hoosier Orchids has reported that I am a very lucky guy! Apparently this is Stanhopea whittenii, a species that was discovered and named in 2002. Apparently not alot of them out there! Im very stoked to have one!

scott

[Frdemetr]

Congrats Scott!!

I found a Stan whittenii pic in Dr Jenny's book and it is very close to yours! He said that the main differences from oculata and wardii are the small number of flowers and the main component in fragrance analysis (trans-methyl cinnamate). Of course the origin is different too (whittenii cames from Belize and Guatemala; wardii occurs only south of Honduras)
You are really very lucky! I'm envy!!

[bcub30]

Yes indeed it is very impressive! The blomms come two at a time are very large. Powerful scent of sugar and cinamon. I wounder if its a valuable plant since there are so few of them available?

Scott