Paph Black Diamond

[Fairorchids]

Originally Posted by POLKA

Hi Fairorchids

Do you have the parents on your tag? I received one last autumn from Al's Orchid Greenhouse, near Wash DC, and it is labled as fairrieanum alba X delanti alba. It is in high bud, and I will know how colored mine will be in a couple of weeks. The plant has purple pigment along the center of the plant, and in the bud. I suppose the genes don't segregate the same, and are going to be colored to some degree or another.

Genetics can be fun.

Your plant is a beauty. Thanks for sharing. Hope mine is as nice!

Take care
Rex
aka POLKA

I do not have parents clonal names. However, the recessive alba genes are different in the various groupings of the Paph genus, so some alba x alba crosses still produce colored offspring.

In some cases there variations even within the group. For example, bellatulum alba x niveum alba produce colored offspring. I guess you would have to sib cross two of those plants, to produce about 6% white flowers (you need double of both of the recessive traits to get there). That is a lot of work and time for a very small output.

[lotis146]

I really like this flower, quite unique, great find! I've got one vini fairrieanum hybrid, interestingly it has the same leaves as yours. I love the feel of them.