Cym. goeringii 'Sankaho'

[orchidophile168]

Hey everyone,

I received a Cym. goeringii 'Sankaho' and couldn't find anything online about the plant. I'm wondering if anyone has any information about the plant (variegation, flower shape and color, etc). Thank you.

[UKCat]

Hi Orchidophile,

I have 3 goeringii, all are different in that they have the same lead name of goeringii, but the leaves are totally different. The 'Sankaho' could just be a local or district name tag. It could be any of the Asian country's version of a Cym. georingii
One of mine is Cym. goeringii 'china' which has long thin grass like leaves and only has 1 flower per spike and another has wider, but shorter leaves and has 2 flowers per spike (still trying to find out here this one comes from)

So until it flowers, and you can compare flower photos you may not know if it comes from Japan, Korea or the Himalayas

[Cym Ladye]

The names on orchids follows a very formal protocol. In this case:

The genus- Cymbidium
The species - goeringii
The individual designation - 'Sankaho'

Note the individual name (clonal name) in orchids is always set off with single quotes. Species names are always in italics and lower case.

Think of it as this:
If your last name is Smith and your child is Anne:

Genus - human
Species or hybrid in this case - Smith
The individual - 'Anne'

For our purposes we will assume her immediate parentage is you and your wife. Any other child of the same parents will have the same basic genetics but will will carry a different individual name and be different in characteristics. This is very simplistic but perhaps it will help.

Some species will have a varietal name referring to either location or specific difference from the originally identified species characteristics. As an example:

Cym. lowianum var concolor 'Viride'
Cym. ensifolium var album 'Orodne's Silver Edge

Most of the varietal names placed on the Asian species have to do with the location in which they are discovered and found to be carrying significantly different characteristics from the original species to merit a varietal name.

CL

[LinhT]

Have you purchased anything from Satomi at Seed Engei? She would be the person to ask. I think this one is a Japanese variety, not Chinese. I bet she would know what the flowers look like.

[orchidophile168]

Thank you very much for all your responses. Judging from the name, it would be a Japanese goeringii. The name is composed of 3 words "San Ka Ho" language-wise. I should've separated them out when I first posted. From my understanding it kanji translate to mean "Mountain Flower Treasure (something precious)." I'm not sure where the plant originally came from, a friend gave me a piece and am interested in getting more information as it has never flowered for the original owner.

Thanks again!

[Asian Cymbidium Empress]

If you still have the tag with the Kanji/Chinese Character, I will find it out for you. I cannot find "Sankahou" variety in my collection of Cymbidium goeringii books and dictionary.