Paph. urbanianum

[The Mutant]

A little premiere bloomer!

And it managed to flower, despite its owners best efforts of killing the entire plant (I managed to make it so that it got a very aggressive mold/fungi on its root system, resulting in the root tips dying and me having to repot it twice within three days, and finally treat it with a weak bleach solution, after that, it went through treatment against mites...). Since it's a single growth plant, I will cut the spike tomorrow (my heart will cry rivers!) to give the poor plant some well earned rest.

I know it isn't the best urbanianum out there, but to me, it's a little fighter and I hope I won't kill it!

[tuvoc]

Nice one.

Kim

[bellini girl]

Nice...worth saving for sure

[NYCorchidman]

This flower reminds me of venustum without the brainy pouch.

By the way, what kind of mite did you have and what was the damage like??

[SlipperGirl]

I just bought a paph urbanianum in the fall!
Yours is very pretty

[The Mutant]

Thanks guys! I definitely think it's worth saving, so now the flower has been cut.

But this is for the sake of the plant! I have put the flower in a glass of water (I've never done that with a Paph flower before, says something about how much I like this one) and we'll see how long it lasts.

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

This flower reminds me of venustum without the brainy pouch.

By the way, what kind of mite did you have and what was the damage like??

The thing is, I have no idea what kind of mite I had, and I didn't even realize that it might be mites, until I stumbled across orchideya's blog and saw the pictures of what an infestation looked like (here: Mites ) then I realized that what I had thought was some kind of fungi or similar, might in fact be mites... To be on the safe side, I've treated my entire collection with a insecticide and I hope it'll work.

[NYCorchidman]

Ok, I just checked three pictures on the website you provided the link of.

I am not convinced this is the damage done by mites, although it is definitely a possibility, especially the second picture.

In the first picture, the larger darker marks are most often seen as a result of mechanical damage as when paph leaves are scratched by sharp and rough materials like perlite or little stones in the mix, or when bent (and thus broken whether fully or partially) by being handled. It can also start by bacterial infection.
The light orange mark is often fungal.

The last picture, this is something I am very interested in because quite a few of my paphs have this indented pockets on the upper surface of the leaves.

These pockets were all present on some of the leaves at the time of purchase but I did not pay much attention.

Then as the plants with those pockets grew new leaves and new fans, the pockets were either not present or just a few. Some were in the form of tiny little speck and some were rather big like the ones shown in the third picture of that website, although none of mine has that many highly concentrated in one leaf like that.
It has always been a mystery for me as no one could give me definite answer.
I did not do anything about those pockets because they did not seem to affect plants. They did not spread, they did not turn dark. They are just there.

One very interesting thing is that I only see these pockets on paphs. can it be paph specific mite? hope not. I'm getting all freaked out now.

Lastly, in the first paragraph of that page under the title mites attack, the writer says he (or she) never saw the bugs but the symptoms are as follow.
This does not convince me. At least the writer should have confirmed with a microscope.

Also, insecticides do not fight off mites as mites are not insects unless the named product also has miticidal effect.

Now I start to worry about the cause of these indented pockets on my paphs leaves.

By the way, I'm not sure about urbanianum, but I've seen lots of insigne and large complex being used as fresh cut flower, so paphs can last quite a bit in the vase. Good luck!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Beautiful, I hope you save it.

[Paphluvr]

Very nice! I particularly like the oblique view.

[The Mutant]

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

So far, the flower looks good in the glass, but I think it'll fade rather quickly. The plant looks fine so far, and I hope it'll start making a new growth and roots soon.