Callosum var "Vietnamense" hort albino 'Mr. Tran'

[SelectOrchids]

Vietnamese callosum, albino form. It has been previously known as 'Mr. Tran'. One cultivar exists so far ( and maybe actually that's the only "real" albino callosum anywhere left...). The flower is quite small, 4-5 cm maximum. The color is a very nice dark green, but the form is not that good, to say the least... All the Vietnamese callosum album are divisions of that plant, cultivated for a very long time in Da Lat.

 

[SlipperKing]

Nice callosum Xavier. Is this your divsion? If so are you going to propagate it?

Rick H

 

[SelectOrchids]

Nice callosum Xavier. Is this your divsion? If so are you going to propagate it?

Rick H

Already pollinated again that year, I sowed last year caps too. It blooms faithfully every year, and the plant is quite small ( 12-15 cm) usually. I try to get some flatter than that in the progeny. I have been reluctant to breed that one with another callosum, because apparently this population of callosum has been wiped out 15+ years ago, now we have only the standard/giant size callosum in Viet Nam, and the flower shape is definitely somewhat different...

 

[SlipperKing]

I would be reluctant too. Keep up the good work

Rick H

 

[NYEric]

Interesting. Can you post a photo of the whole plant please?

 

[Candace]

Hmmm. I've got a seedling labeled callosum alba. It better have a better shape to it than this one or it's going bye-bye.

 

[SelectOrchids]

Hmmm. I've got a seedling labeled callosum alba. It better have a better shape to it than this one or it's going bye-bye.

Some selfings of that plant (another division that went to Japan some years ago) have been released too, so maybe that's one of them. There are many fake callosum album around ( and unfortunately they tend to have better shape). Callosum var. sanderae is apparently nearly lost forever, so is the albino lawrenceanum 'Hyeanum', and superbiens album... With the surge of maudiae hybrids, and selfings/siblings of the earlier crosses, a lot of "albino species' appeared. Deep mess... There were a lot of "callosum var. sublaeve album" released from the Netherlands, but the origin of the motherplant is unknown, as well as the breeder, the flasker... so it is very difficult to be sure that those are "genuine".

I know of a callosum var. sublaeve album in Thailand, I had the wild collected plant blooming in my hands for 10 min before the owner told me it has been sold by phone ( 100$ !!! :drool. There are 2 barbatum album in private collection (Malaysia) that died, and for the real callosum Sanderae, I have yet to see a 100% sure plant. superbiens album, I know that Paphanatics had a real one, there was another real one in France ( 'La Tuilerie' AM/RHS) that died 15 years ago, and many, many fake ones. lawrenceanum album, I have seen only once a real one, and I got a division of it. I think there is no other around still. The plant is a very lousy grower. The 'Tradition' is apparently not a pure species, and it has been the most used albino "lawrenceanum" to propagate the species so...

 

[Candace]

Mine is still small, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's not genuine. It seems I'm a magnet for mislabled paphs this year.

 

[michelangelo]

Hello from Picardy, Xavier,
Alfredo Riboni, of Varese, had some albino callosum for sale at the last Vaucelles exhibit in March. He called them callosum thailandense album. I saw one in flower at the entrance of the exhibit, it looked exactly like your vietnamese albino, only somewhat larger. Leafspan about 15 cm. The same plant is shown in Olaf Gruss book on albino forms of slippers, under the same name. What do you think this plant is ? Really a genuine callosum sublaeve album ?
By the way, I noticed Olaf did not give different names to the album forms of callosum callosum vs. callosum sublaeve in his book. What is your opinion ? Do these two varieties deserve different names for their album forms, or not ?
michelangelo

 

[SelectOrchids]

Hello from Picardy, Xavier,
Alfredo Riboni, of Varese, had some albino callosum for sale at the last Vaucelles exhibit in March. He called them callosum thailandense album. I saw one in flower at the entrance of the exhibit, it looked exactly like your vietnamese albino, only somewhat larger. Leafspan about 15 cm. The same plant is shown in Olaf Gruss book on albino forms of slippers, under the same name. What do you think this plant is ? Really a genuine callosum sublaeve album ?
By the way, I noticed Olaf did not give different names to the album forms of callosum callosum vs. callosum sublaeve in his book. What is your opinion ? Do these two varieties deserve different names for their album forms, or not ?
michelangelo

Those "thailandense album" come from Klinge in the Netherlands. They just appeared like that, without any known motherplant, so I would be careful with them. They were surprisingly cheap too, so it sounds "suspicious" ( Klinge was selling a blooming size plant at 6 euros...). So they may be or may not be, I would say it is 50/50.

All those "albinos" mottled-leafed species from the group lawrenceanum/callosum/barbatum/superbiens/curtisii are very, very hard to tell apart from carefully choosen individuals plants of hybrids... That's where dishonnest people can simply screw up forever a species in cultivation, as it is nearly impossible to know for sure. Lawrenceanum 'Tradition', as an example looks nearly like a real lawrenceanum albino. However, some selfings of it will turn out to looks a little bit a lot like callosum, here and there... The leaf markings will be strange as well.

I will post a superbiens albino, never shown before, when it will bloom again, in september/october.