# Bulbophyllum arfakianum



## bigleaf (Dec 26, 2016)

Bulbophyllum arfakianum

This is sold as Bulbophyllum arfakianum (green type).

I think this flower maybe similar to Bulb. fraudulentum and Bulb. fritillariflorum 

I don't know the difference. In a few days I will take a peek inside of this flower. Now that I see this flower in person, I'm becoming more intrigued by it.


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## SlipperFan (Dec 26, 2016)

Cool!


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## NYEric (Dec 26, 2016)

These are nice. There's a nice album form also.


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## abax (Dec 26, 2016)

The outer part of the flower looks like snake skin. Is it
fully open? I'd love to see the inside of the flower.


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## bigleaf (Dec 28, 2016)

Thank you all.

Bulbophyllum arfakianum - peekaboo

First thing visible is the wiggly lip. Petals are really tiny - visible in the last photo but blurry. This is the best I can do with my phone camera. 
Does anyone know what iphone app I can use to draw pointed arrow?


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## blondie (Dec 29, 2016)

I do like this group of bulbo's this always look superb.


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## My Green Pets (Dec 30, 2016)

Looks very cool!


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## fibre (Dec 30, 2016)

Such a special flower!


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## Ozpaph (Jan 1, 2017)

weird


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## naoki (Jan 1, 2017)

Very nice, thank you for the detailed photos to show the features of this weird flower!


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## Rick (Jan 2, 2017)

Hey Peter.

Happy New Year! This is a very cool color form of B. arfakianum

I have B. fritilariflorum and the differences can be subtle.

1) The petals (which I can see in the pic when you opened the flower up) are blade shaped in arfakianum, but are tear-drop shaped with a short filament extension in fritilariflorum.

2) Flower size can be variable, but the largest arfakianum tend to be a few CM shorter than fritilariflorum. I had a frit flower that cleared 13cm long on my big plant, but a first bloom seedling had a flower that was barely 7-8 cm.

3) This hasn't been documented in txt that I've accessed, but my frit smells like puke on a warm sunny afternoon. I don't know if you can detect an odor in this flower so that would be worth noting since a lot of similar bulbo species often have very different smells.

From what I've seen fraudulentum has relatively small glossy flowers.


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## bigleaf (Jan 5, 2017)

Hi Rick,
Thank you. Today is cloudy but I had a chance to take couple photos. I think this flower is not going to open further. Today it smells like cheese. It's not a bad scent. It smells better than Bulb annandalei that is more like fermented cheese


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## Happypaphy7 (Jan 20, 2017)

Creepy lol


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## NYEric (Jan 20, 2017)

These always scare me!


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## Happypaphy7 (Jan 20, 2017)

Yes. Creepy! 
Reminds of some unpleasant being like an alien or snake of some sort.


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## Rick (Jan 20, 2017)

Peter

The petals match for arfakianum rather than fritilariflorum , being almost like blades or triangles rather than teardrops with almost hair like filament.

Seems like really splitting hairs if you look at it from the structure basis. 

From an eco / pollinator basis the fragrance is probably much more important to who is going to show up and move pollen around, and it sounds like this flower is quite a bit different from mine (nasty barf smell, not cheese).

These greenish versions may be a new species altogether!!


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## bigleaf (Jan 20, 2017)

Thank you Rick. I have a friend who visited and said the fragrance is like cheddar cheese.


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## Happypaphy7 (Jan 21, 2017)

Sharp cheddar or mild? lol
That is interesting 
What would you say of the scent?


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## Rick (Jan 28, 2017)

I just had one of my frittilariaflorum flowers open enough so took it apart to photograph the petals.





This flower was 10cm at first opening, and would have expected to get another couple cm over the next couple days if I hadn't broke it.





You can see the filaments at the tips of the petals in this species.


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## Migrant13 (Jan 29, 2017)

It's even more alien inside.


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## bigleaf (Jan 30, 2017)

Thank you Rick


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## troy (Jan 30, 2017)

Too bad the staminode is covered, what a cool bulbo!! Congrats


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## Rick (Feb 1, 2017)

troy said:


> Too bad the staminode is covered, what a cool bulbo!! Congrats



You mean the column/petals and lip? (I don't think Bulbos have the equivalent staminode shield of slippers).

Also even crazier is the stigmatic surface is actually in a shallow hole/socket that really takes some precision to poke the pollen into.

I've successfully pollinated these flowers in the past and kind of difficult to find the hole.


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## troy (Feb 1, 2017)

Funny rick lol... is there any registered hybrid of this one?


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## Rick (Feb 4, 2017)

troy said:


> Funny rick lol... is there any registered hybrid of this one?



I'm just a species guy so I generally don't pay attention to bulbo hybrids. I wouldn't be surprised if someone has made some hybrids with these species since they've been around for quite some time.


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## Marco (Feb 4, 2017)

This one has really interesting blooms


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