Mislabeled Phrag? P. manzurii or not?
 

Aloha All,

I bought this "Phrag manzurii" as a large seedling. It has just flowered for the first time (the flower is just opening) but it doesn't look right to me and I wanted to see what y'all think.

The flower color is pretty true to the pics and has a very slight floral scent to it.

Do you think this is the species or a mislabel?
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I wouldn't be certain one way or the other. The flower appears to be having some developmental issues to begin with. It's not opened all the way and there are some odd pigmentation patterns. This makes identification more difficult.

Overall it seems reasonable that it could be manzurii, though I don't know many folks who can reliably differentiate between manzurii and plain schlimii, let alone a hybrid of the two.

---------- Post added at 07:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

Oh, also, you might have better luck asking this question on the
Slippertalk forum for something this specific.

Thanks for the response. The warm yellow/peach of the flower is what's throwing me. I was being impatient and took the pics before the flower has fully opened. Sorry that this makes IDing much more difficult.

I'll wait a couple more days for it to fully open/mature and then share a couple more pics.

I checked Kew list of monocots. Accepted name is Phrag schlimii, var. manzurii. Since some schlimiis are fragrant, that part is OK.

The yellow tint seems to be OK, but slipper has more pigment than I would expect.

The flower has opened a bit more and is staying a fairly strong pink.

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(for what ever reason, I can't seem to set up image to go right side up when loading onto orchid board)

For what it's worth, something that I have observed with a number of orchids of different genera - if there are yellow and pink pigments, the yellow seems to develop first and the pink later - the pink may well wash out the yellow to give white. So I strongly suspect that as the flower matures the pink will take over. and the yellow will be only a memory.

Also, bear in mind that this is the first time that your plant blooms. First bloomers are known for not reaching their full potential as the plant is still young and doesn't have the same resources a well stablished plant has. I have heard that Paphiopedilum and Phragmipedium hybridizers often wait a couple of blooming seasons or even three to know how the flower will definitely look like for sure.

Regarding first blooms, some of the mishaps I have seen include: color distortions, smaller flower size and lower number of blooms, crooked parts and even flowers missing some elements like petals or sepals.

BTW your plant is precious!

Thank you. I just heard back from the seller and they told me that this plant must be Phrag. Manzur la Aldea (besseae fma flavum x manzurii). They had both as the same size seedlings and there must have been a mix up in the GH, so they are sending me a previously bloomed Phrag. manzurii.

In general I prefer to grow species, but there is definitely room on my shelf for this cutie. I look forward to future years/blooms and see how it develops. Thanks for the thoughts.