Yellowing on flower sheath of Paphiopedilum

[SillyKeiki]

Hello fellow orchid lovers.

I woke up today to a great cause of concern. This is my Paphiopedilum American Hybrid. I bought this plant last year in December with a beautiful flower. The flower faded in due time, but the orchid has been growing during this year very well, and the second leaf fan had produced another flower sheath. I was very excited to see the huge flower again. Just a couple of days ago the flower sheath was looking like this:



But this morning when I woke up, it looked like this:



Is this change in coloration normal? To me it looks as if the flower is going to dry and die. But then again, this is my first experience with a developing flower on this plant. So, I decided to ask to you experts.

Is something wrong with my Paphiopedilum?

[Paphluvr]

Unfortunately I believe your suspicion is correct. It looks as if the bud has died inside the sheath.

[SillyKeiki]

But... why...? The rest of the plant looks so healthy, with so many new growths... This can be easily my favourite flower and I have been waiting for a year to see it again...

I am truly devastated right now...

[Paphluvr]

It's disheartening to wait for a year and then have something like this happen. Have you had any high temperatures lately? Sometimes this just happens inexplicably. I've had it happen even after the stem has started to elongate. Hopefully someone else will have some other input as to possible causes.

[SillyKeiki]

We have been living in constant heatwaves. With 34-39°C and 30% relative humidity outside, although I managed to keep a maximum of 29-30°C in my grow space, with an humidity of 60% RH thanks to my cold mist humidifier.

Maybe it was too hot for my Paphio, but there is little I can do as we don't have air conditioning in this flat. We moved here in July.