Move over, Fûkiran!

[kentaki]

Originally Posted by JungleMel

I love variegated orchids and earlier in the year I shelled out more than I woukd have liked to for a variegated Dendrobium speciosum 'Tanchouzuru' seedling, similar to the ones listed on Satomi's site TANCHOUZURU???? - Neofinetia falcata/Japanese orchid/Samurai orchid/SEED ENGEI I wonder how popular these are in Japan?

Seems kinda popular among regular orchid growing crowd and people who would grow this kind of stuff. And I'd only say the price is very affordable (read the line). One interesting thing is, I have never seen a picture of flowers.

There are at least two variegated clones of Den. kingianum. One is called 'Aya Nishiki' (Marvelous Brocade?). Supposedly this one blooms, and I am wondering about mine.
https://iris.toyoake.or.jp/catalog/item/697/

I purchased a variegated clone of Den. anosmum from a vendor based in Taiwan. I believe this one is really Den. Nestor (anosmum x parishii). They also had a miniature Dendrobium, Den. Cool Beans. Of course, there is no such hybrid registered, and found out it probably was an unregistered Thai hybrid. That was frustrating. People who went to the MAOC show this fall may know what I am referring to.

Originally Posted by JungleMel

I'd like to see more variegated orchid species in the US, that's for sure, but I realize it being maybe 1 in a couple hundred thousand seedlings turning out variegated and living to be mature enough to be divided or cloned takes some time to say the least.

I am sure many people are repelled by the idea of collecting orchids from wild. I think it would be ok if the species is abundant and as long as collection is done ethically and sustainably. Goodyera pubescens is a wide spread species and locally abundant. And yet, I have seen only one picture of variegated clone. Is this because of something unique to this species preventing variegated clones from survival in nature, or variegation simply does not occur in this species? Variegated clones of other Goodyera species such as G. velutina, G. biflora and G. henryi are also found in Japan and occasionally available.

I also stated that there aren't many variegated plants of the U.S. origin to begin with. This is very perplexing to me. I would think patriotic (no sarcasm here) Americans would be interested in plants growing in their country, and to a certain extent, it is true, but may be not as much as I would expect. It would be interesting to see a genre of variegated U.S. native orchids developing and wiping out some foreign species like Fûkiran.