What is the largest orchid flower?
 

I have seen a lot of people claim sanderianum because of the length of its petals, and Grammatophyllum is the biggest plant. What are some other opinions about what is the largest in overall say square inches as far as flowers go? Just curious...

I had a Vanda Thailand Beauty that had some very large flowers. Maybe 8 square inches.

There is no doubt that Paph sanderianum is the largest in vertical spread due to the length of the petals, but if you consider the actual total area of the flower itself then there are many more candidates. Some of the hybrid cattleyas and vandas are quite large and would have to be considered.

SP2340 I bet that was beautiful!

Yeah I figured it would be a catt, maybe a vanda, was wondering where phrag kovatchii would fit in too

My vote is for Phrag. kovachii- It's HUGE! :shock: Check out Piping Rock orchids web site.

I have no idea but I seen this on at the World Orchid Conf. 8 inches from the bottom of my palm to the tip of my finger

Some long petal phrags have petals way longer than Paph sanderianum also. ;)

i'm not very familiar with phrags, which ones are longer?

I would have to agree with Phantasm, some of the new Cattleya flowers are simply massive, especially those from the Japanese breeders. Phrag kovachii has a large flower but these Cattleyas have flowere in excess of eight inches across and seven inches tall. And for Phrags you will want to look at variations on Cuadatum, Exstaminodium, and Wallisii. All have variations which are easily as long or longer than most sanderianum blooms, with a few exceptions.

anyone know in particular which catts are so large?

I believe one of the biggest flowers ( species ) is Angreacum sesquipedale from Malagasy

There is a Stanhopea specimen plant grown by Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids that has the biggest flowers I have ever seen. He held just one of the flowers in his hand for me to view and the flower was bigger then his hand. I wish I had taken a photo!

Cattleya warscewiczii
by far is the largest of the Cattleya species. When well grown flowers reach 12 inches across and 10 inches long, A single spike can have ten flowers all of which rise above one another to form what looks like a tower of giant blooms.
heres a link to a page with some info on the species.

Cattleya warscewiczii

Phragmipedium kovachii.com [Main Page] This link (Ihope) tells about the kovachii being 8-10"span.

as Phantasm said, Paph sanderianum is the longest flower (It even has a Guinness record, I think!), but I remember one Cattleya (could be hybrid or species I do not remember as it was many many years ago in Venezuela - I was around 12/14 years old) with flowers with a spam of more than 30 cm (12'')

I remember they had a large dish next to the flower for comparison and it was smaller. That really impressed me at that time... Have never seen anything similar again...

this is turning into quite the learning experience? anyone else have any overly large species or hybrids that they know of? funny how all the ones listed seem to be the most expensive ones around...

here it is... World Record Rapunzel is the one in Guinness... can be bought at Zephyrus Orchids for $ 20 000 (sorry, $ 19 999 it's on sale New Page 1 ;)) which brings us back to the expensive plants ;)