# Cypripedium farreri in the wild



## KyushuCalanthe (Aug 2, 2013)

I was lucky enough to visit the home of one of the world's rarest lady slipper orchid species, Cypripedium farreri, this past June. This plant has only been found in four known localities in the entire world, all in the Hengduan Mountains in southwestern China. The valley in which we saw it luckily is not in danger of being developed or destroyed, and yet the plants are not totally safe there. The reason why is simple - plant collectors would love to get their hands on them. To put some perspective on this, we saw only 20 or so flowering plants in the entire area while many hundreds C. flavum, C. bardolphianum, and C. tibeticum were to be seen. It would take only one person a few hours to literally wipe out this colony. For that reason I'm keeping its exact location a secret. 

Enjoy the video:

Cyp. farreri in the wild


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## Ghosthunt64 (Aug 2, 2013)

Great video. I love seeing plants in situ, and also really informative. Thanks!


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## Dido (Aug 2, 2013)

wonderful to see this in nature. 

Oh well then I am right inorganic is better for them, and my other things are working too, as I had seen some pic from other people before, and I used to follow this pic. 

One of mine flowered this year forming a seedpot from a selfing. So lets hope, I never could pollenate it. 

By the way it could be in nature like in my garden, my plants dont flower every year, so maybe they need even longer in nature to flwoer again. 
Even I think mines are happy, but root growth is extreme every year. 

Thanks for sharing again.


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## NYEric (Aug 2, 2013)

Cool. Hopefully artificially propagated plants can one day re-populate the native locales.


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## Spaph (Aug 2, 2013)

Absolutely amazing video, thanks for posting! You are very lucky to have been able to experience this adventure and see them in the wild like that-in full bloom!


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## Rick (Aug 2, 2013)

A rothschildianum color pattern on a Cyp:clap:

In some ways the story is similar to Cyp kentuckiensis living in unstable habits being re-arranged by flood waters. This area looks like it should be amenable to landslides.

Also, Cyps are usually mimicking some other flower to trick local pollinators into taking care of their needs for free. With such a dearth of companion vegetation, what would be around to pollinate this species? Seed pods either mean successful pollinating or lack of pollinators have driven it to a selfing mode (contributing to rarity).


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## Ghosthunt64 (Aug 2, 2013)

Rick said:


> A rothschildianum color pattern on a Cyp:clap:



My thoughts exactly.


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## JeanLux (Aug 3, 2013)

Great video Tom!!!! Nice close-up feature on your cam. btw. !!!! Jean


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## KyushuCalanthe (Aug 3, 2013)

I'm glad you all enjoyed it. I'll be doing "spotlight" videos on a number of species of orchid from the trip in the coming weeks/months. Each will also have a corresponding article on my blog, so keep tuned.



Dido said:


> By the way it could be in nature like in my garden, my plants dont flower every year, so maybe they need even longer in nature to flwoer again.



I can't say for sure about that, but I did see more than one plant that had a seed pod from the previous season, including a rare double flowered specimen (seen in the video). If it can set seed one year and then produce two flowers on the same stem the next, I'd say the plant wasn't adversely effected by setting seed.



NYEric said:


> Cool. Hopefully artificially propagated plants can one day re-populate the native locales.



Not likely Eric. The plants that Holger produces (and he's the only person who is doing this in China) are to be sold. He has a number of C. farreri for sale this fall, blooming sized, but true seedlings, so don't expect all of them to flower next season. The price won't be cheap.



Rick said:


> In some ways the story is similar to Cyp kentuckiensis living in unstable habits being re-arranged by flood waters. This area looks like it should be amenable to landslides.



From what I've seen of Cyps in the wild, and indeed terrestrial orchids in general, is they prefer or even need disturbance of some kind to thrive. Of course that is a generalization, but seems to hold true for most Cyps. The plants I saw in these mountains are probably covered up by slides all the time. I saw one C. tibeticum clump growing literally in a slide area, half covered in new rocks, but thriving nonetheless. Pretty cool.



Rick said:


> Also, Cyps are usually mimicking some other flower to trick local pollinators into taking care of their needs for free. With such a dearth of companion vegetation, what would be around to pollinate this species? Seed pods either mean successful pollinating or lack of pollinators have driven it to a selfing mode (contributing to rarity).



Well, the video doesn't show that there are flowering plants virtually everywhere in the surrounding areas. C. farreri just seemed to like to grow above and away from other vegetation, but certainly within reach of many pollinators. I saw plenty of seed capsules from last season on many Cyps. It is interesting to note that the natural hybrid between this species and C. tibeticum (C. x wenqingiae) also occurs at this site - proving that cross pollination is taking place.


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## SlipperFan (Aug 4, 2013)

Cool flower. You were lucky to see it.


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## TDT (Aug 7, 2013)

Wonderful plants, love the video, thank you for sharing it!


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## NYEric (Aug 7, 2013)

KyushuCalanthe said:


> Not likely Eric. The plants that Holger produces (and he's the only person who is doing this in China) are to be sold. He has a number of C. farreri for sale this fall, blooming sized, but true seedlings, so don't expect all of them to flower next season. The price won't be cheap.



There are people in EU growing these, right? I would think the Ruling Party of the Glorious People's Democratic Republic would be very happy to repatriate plants back to the proper native environment.


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## KyushuCalanthe (Aug 7, 2013)

NYEric said:


> There are people in EU growing these, right? I would think the Ruling Party of the Glorious People's Democratic Republic would be very happy to repatriate plants back to the proper native environment.



I take that as a joke  Repatriation is not an easy process 

The simple sad truth is that in China there is more interest in making money (apparently at any cost ironically) than anything else. There are plenty of folks there who would think nothing of stripping every C. farreri out of the wild for a quick profit. I fear that even if climate change doesn't do them in, plant collectors will. China is riding a huge high right now that cannot be stopped. Sure, there are plenty of folks who are sounding alarm bells, but the train is at full speed...


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## NYEric (Aug 7, 2013)

Sad.


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## biothanasis (Aug 11, 2013)

very nice video with nice info!
Thanks Tom!


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