Paphiopedilum helenae fm. aureum *****

[fibre]

This is IMO the best Paphiopedilum forma aureum in the world - at least the best one I've ever seen so far.
It is the result of a breeding process that took me nine years.

I started in 2014 with pollinating my P. helenae 'Lemon Elf' with pollen of John's P. helenae 'Charlie', the finest coloured helenae I've seen so far. (Thank you again John for this generous donation!)
Then I selected the most vigorous and short-leaved ones with the best flower-shape from the resulting coloured progenies for the next step.
Again I sowed the capsule in my own lab to get as much seedlings as possible. At each replating I culled all that showed signs of colour at the base of the leaves.
Two of these bloomed last year, but most of them are flowering now.

This special clone shown here is growing in pot of 7 cm in diameter and has a leaf-span that is not as short as the leaf-span of it's sisters but is half the length of a common helenae. It shows great vigor as it still has three new starters!

I am so proud of this result and glad that all my work has finally been worth it!

 

[monocotman]

Wow just amazing!

 

[GuRu]

Much work done on the hunt of a P. helenae fma. aureum flower in perfection ....the result is worth all your efforts. Kudos and congrats, Chris. Well done.

 

[Heather]

Great example of fine breeding. Wondeful!

 

[tnyr5]

I'd be swearing too, hah!

 

[Guldal]

This is IMO the best Paphiopedilum forma aureum in the world....

I cannot but wholeheartedly agree! No reason to modestly retract or modify your claim, Chris. If anyone disagrees, I dare them to show us photos of a better clone!

There is no doubt in my mind: this is a GM (Gold Medal - FCC) P. helenae fma aureum, if ever there was one!

Great job, Chris - expert line breeding at its best (i.e. that enhances natural features of the flower without a trace of artifice!) BRAVO!

 

[mar11]

wow amazing !!!!

 

[fibre]

Much work done on the hunt of a P. helenae fma. aureum flower in perfection ....the result is worth all your efforts. Kudos and congrats, Chris. Well done.

I cannot but wholeheartedly agree! No reason to modestly retract or modify your claim, Chris. If anyone disagrees, I dare them to show us photos of a better clone!

There is no doubt in my mind: this is a GM (Gold Medal - FCC) P. helenae fma aureum, if ever there was one!

Great job, Chris - expert line breeding at its best (i.e. that enhances natural features of the flower without a trace of artifice!) BRAVO!

Thank you both so much! To read praise out of your pens makes it even greater, as you both are well known lovers of the purity of species.

 

[NEslipper]

Gorgeous color on that one, perfect for fall! Congratulations!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

It’s the best one I’ve seen. Well done Fibre!

 

[Ozpaph]

excellent

 

[NYEric]

Nice. Thanks for sharing.

 

[emydura]

Congratulations Chris. That is a magnificent clone. Up till now, I thought John's 'Charlie' clone was the best helenae I had seen. This is even better. Well done.

I am still not clear in what you have done in this breeding. This seedling has resulted from two generations of breeding? So you crossed your 'Lemon Elf' clone with 'Charlie' and picked the best seedling and then did what with it? Selfed it?

 

[fibre]

Thank you David for your big praise!

I am still not clear in what you have done in this breeding. This seedling has resulted from two generations of breeding? So you crossed your 'Lemon Elf' clone with 'Charlie' and picked the best seedling and then did what with it? Selfed it?

Right, I crossed John's 'Charlie' to my 'Lemon Elf' in 2014. From the resulting progenies (=F1) I picked the best to cross them like 'F1-A' with 'F1-B' and 'F1-C' with 'F1-A' for example to get what I show you here (=F2).

The F1 generation is relatively homogenous in most terms. They all have leaves shorter than 'Lemon Elf', a nice long stem and the flower shape is better than 'Lemon Elf' but not as fine as 'Charlie''s.
By doing the F2-hybrids I hoped not only for albine helenae but also for shorter leaves as well as for better shape. And of course I took the most vigorous plants for the F2. Unfortunately I got only a few seedlings without red pigmentation. I guess they are less than 10% of all that germinated. This was a little bit disappointing.

This special clone here is my favorite one as it doesn't hold it's petals as close to the pouch as most helenae do and it's petals are wider than usual. The dorsal is full and round too. The leaves, though relatively short, are not as short as the leaves of some of it's brothers and sisters, what I would have preferred.

 

[emydura]

Thanks Chris. It has all paid off. Do you have future plans with this line of breeding? Smaller leaves?

 

[fibre]

Thanks Chris. It has all paid off. Do you have future plans with this line of breeding? Smaller leaves?

You are right David, I still did the next step to even shorter leaves and more vigour.

 

[monocotman]

It’s interesting to speculate on the genetics of this colour form.
We know from the F1 that the aureum colour is recessive as they were all coloured.
Fibre states that the yield of aureums in the second generation was less than 10%.
If there was just a single gene involved in this trait then the yield of pure yellows should have be around 25% (1/4).
If two genes are involved and both are inherited independently, then the yield of aureums will be 6.25% (1/4 x 1/4) according to classical genetics.
So maybe the chances are that the aureum colour form is controlled by two independent ( not on the same chromosome) recessive genes.
This also assumes that there wasn’t any preferential survival of the coloured forms during their culture on agar.
The good thing about recessive traits is that they tend to breed true, so selfing or sib crossing two aureums forms now should yield 100% aureums in the next generation.

 

[fibre]

Thank you monocotman for this interesting reflections about the genetics of this aureum form!

The good thing about recessive traits is that they tend to breed true, so selfing or sib crossing two aureums forms now should yield 100% aureums in the next generation.

Yes, maybe I will give it a try and sib two of my favorites of these next year.

But I will never do a selfing!
Years ago I got some flasks from a breeder who selfed a division of my P. helenae fm. aureum 'Lemon Elf'. All of them without any exception are terrible bad growing! If they would make more than one root per growth I would be happy!
That's what an experienced Paphiopedilum-breeder told my many years ago: Do not self helenae if you don't like to end up with fertility-problems and very week plants! So true.

 

[monocotman]

At leat you now have some lovely aureums to chose some sib parents from!

 

[Ozpaph]

or aureums are less likely to survive
Its great that 'people' are thinking about their breeding programmes rather than making random hydrids with average parents....