Paph. praestans - "Red Leaf"

[naoki]

PaphMadMan, I've also wondered about this (cost of maintaining flower vs resource reabsorption). If you happen to know some experiments where this is compared in orchids, I'd like to know!

In some plants, cost of floral maintenance could be significant:
http://www.pitt.edu/~biohome/Dept/pdf/22.pdf

The trade-off is obviously specific to each species. But for orchid species which keep flowers for a long time, you might be right that the cost of floral maintenance is small.

In addition to the resource cost, there could be a cost in "time", too. Some species seem to shift from flowering phase to next (e.g. growth, rest etc). So cutting flower can change the hormonal balance, and the plant may move on to the next phase in their life history. For example, my P. concolor seems to wait for the end of flower, then it starts to develop the next new growths. P. bellatulum seems to be similar.

[PaphMadMan]

Originally Posted by naoki

PaphMadMan, I've also wondered about this (cost of maintaining flower vs resource reabsorption). If you happen to know some experiments where this is compared in orchids, I'd like to know!

In some plants, cost of floral maintenance could be significant:
http://www.pitt.edu/~biohome/Dept/pdf/22.pdf

The trade-off is obviously specific to each species. But for orchid species which keep flowers for a long time, you might be right that the cost of floral maintenance is small.

In addition to the resource cost, there could be a cost in "time", too. Some species seem to shift from flowering phase to next (e.g. growth, rest etc). So cutting flower can change the hormonal balance, and the plant may move on to the next phase in their life history. For example, my P. concolor seems to wait for the end of flower, then it starts to develop the next new growths. P. bellatulum seems to be similar.

Reading just the summary of that paper, a couple things occur to me. An annual like Clarkia probably isn't a good model in general for perennials like orchids. And using seed production as an indicator of resource costs might not be valid. There are certainly other possibilities like simple decrease in fertility with flower age and approaching senescence of an aging annual plant that could be in play.

I'm not aware of any such studies in orchids. Obviously it does take some water and energy to maintain flowers, but probably not much in relation to producing them in the first place, and little or nothing in the way of other mineral nutrient resources. Your point about the influence on timing of new growth can certainly be significant.

[eggshells]

I noticed that there are some paphs that puts out new their new growth only after flowering and this is true with a few of my Paph praestans. Hence the reason I wanted them to bloom before I snipped the flower. Another one that came into mind is malipoense and delenatii.

It seems like it's their cue for putting out new growths.

[tucker85]

Beautiful paph.! Excellent photographs also.

[RosieC]

Beautiful!