Phrag kovachii imposter!

[dmcmkl]

I purchased a Phrag kovachii (Purple Mystery x Purple Cow) from Orchids Ltd a couple of years ago. It is blooming for the first time, however it appears to be an imposter! Tell me what you all think!



Looks to me more like a Fritz Schomburg! Normally I would be disappointed, but I'm not. I love the color, it is super saturated and I think it looks awesome. Here it is next to my just opened, first time blooming, Phrag kovachii 'Tesoro Morado' which I also purchased from Jason a few years ago.


The kovachii has a petal spread of 16cm while the kovachii imposter has a petal spread of 8cm.
What really intrigues me about the imposter is it's color. If it is indeed a Fritz Schomburg I can say I have never seen one before that was this color. Normally what I have seen are pink and peach toned. Has anyone ever seen one this color?

 

[CharlesD]

It almost looks too dark to be a primary? Otherwise my guess would be fischlimii would be the other parent

 

[gonewild]

Nice but definitely not kovachii. Not FS either.

 

[NYEric]

Purple mystery for sure.

 

[Linus_Cello]

The shape seems more Eumelia Arias to me. Maybe EA backcross to KV?

 

[mrhappyrotter]

Regardless of being mislabeled, it looks like something really nice. The color is fantastic and it's very shapely.

A handful of years back, Orchids Ltd was selling plants labeled as Phrag. Samuel Crothers (kovachii x fischeri), and given the small size of the plant compared to kovachii as well as the overall qualities of the flower, it wouldn't shock me if that's what you've got. If so, then I feel like it's a particularly nice example of this hybrid given how saturated the color is in combination with how flat and round the flower is. However, I wouldn't bet my life on this being the correct ID.

I bet if you message the vendor, they'll a) have an idea of what you ended up with and b) might offer some remedy. I haven't had any issues with them, personally, but in the few cases I've read about where someone's had an issue with an order, they seemed to be responsive.

I would be unhappy that I didn't get a true kovachii if that's what I paid for, but also ecstatic about getting such a nice quality hybrid (so long as I could get some confirmation from OL about the ID).

 

[dmcmkl]

I texted Jason today to ask what he thought it might be. I drove down pollen from the Tesoro Morado to him yesterday. Apparently he only has two divisions of that particular kovachii left in the nursery. One is quite small and the other is small and struggling. I'm going to try and self mine. If successful and I get a viable seed pod I plan on asking a princely sum for it!

mrhappyrotter you just might be right. I checked out the OL listing for Samuel Crothers and it looks a lot like this one with better shape and a darker more saturated color. Whatever it is I really like it and I am not disappointed at all that it is not a kovachii.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I texted Jason today to ask what he thought it might be. I drove down pollen from the Tesoro Morado to him yesterday. Apparently he only has two divisions of that particular kovachii left in the nursery. One is quite small and the other is small and struggling. I'm going to try and self mine. If successful and I get a viable seed pod I plan on asking a princely sum for it!

mrhappyrotter you just might be right. I checked out the OL listing for Samuel Crothers and it looks a lot like this one with better shape and a darker more saturated color. Whatever it is I really like it and I am not disappointed at all that it is not a kovachii.

Awesome! I hope you find out what it is, and I really hope you report back to us and let us know. I'm very interested in the answer.

 

[PeteM]

The shape seems more Eumelia Arias to me. Maybe EA backcross to KV?

This has my vote

 

[gonewild]

If it's an Eumelia Arias it's the best one ever!

 

[Theodoreorchidking]

Hi there. How long did you kovachii take to develop a flower from spike? Mine is in spike and the strongest thing keeps happening. Water seems to be collecting in the fan were the sheeth is. Iv never seen this before.

 

[Paphluvr]

Too bad that you can never know positively what it is, but it sure is a beautiful flower. A keeper for sure!

 

[dmcmkl]

Hi there. How long did you kovachii take to develop a flower from spike? Mine is in spike and the strongest thing keeps happening. Water seems to be collecting in the fan were the sheeth is. Iv never seen this before.

The Tesoro Morado was soooo slow! It first poked it's head up on October 30th. Didn't fully open until January 8th. It was an excruciating wait to be sure. I was really terrified that it would blast but it didn't. In fact it has a second bud that I'm pretty sure will open as well. The growth that is flowering already has a new start that is about 2 inches tall. I also noticed when I just went up to check on the new growth that the second growth in the picture has a bud peeking up! Yay!!!

After collecting the pollen for Jason one of the pollen sacs had partly opened and some pollen got onto to the stigma so it ended up being selfed. I was kind of trying to avoid that happening. A few years ago I had a couple of roths from the Orchid Zone that were in flower. I selfed each and crossed the two and gave the seed pods to Jason. Unfortunately the selfing and crossing seemed to tax the plants and they declined to the point where I lost both plants. Nothing I did seemed to work to keep them going. I didn't want that to happen to the Tesoro Morado but it is growing very strongly and I've improved my growing skills since then so fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

The unidentified kovachii imposter has finished opening and the color has faded a bit as they tend to do after a couple of days. I took another picture of it with my Pixel cell phone which sometimes seems to capture the colors better then my expensive Nikon DSLR. The more I look around and ponder I'm starting to lean towards it being a Samuel Crothers which is fischeri x kovachii. I say this because it has the purple spots in the pouch and a bright yellow band on the inner pouch just below the staminodial shield like a kovachii. This along with the size of the flower and the leaves tells me that is from the influence of the fischeri.

Here is today's beauty shot


Does anyone agree or am I crazy? I haven't heard back from Jason yet about what he thinks it might be. But he did text me back that he does recall some mislabeling occuring around the time I purchased this beauty. He said he owes me a real kovachii which I will of course take him up on! Whatever the case I am thrilled with how this mistake turned out. I just wish I could definitively find out what I have here.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

The unidentified kovachii imposter has finished opening and the color has faded a bit as they tend to do after a couple of days. I took another picture of it with my Pixel cell phone which sometimes seems to capture the colors better then my expensive Nikon DSLR. The more I look around and ponder I'm starting to lean towards it being a Samuel Crothers which is fischeri x kovachii. I say this because it has the purple spots in the pouch and a bright yellow band on the inner pouch just below the staminodial shield like a kovachii. This along with the size of the flower and the leaves tells me that is from the influence of the fischeri.

Here is today's beauty shot
View attachment 51842

Does anyone agree or am I crazy? I haven't heard back from Jason yet about what he thinks it might be. But he did text me back that he does recall some mislabeling occuring around the time I purchased this beauty. He said he owes me a real kovachii which I will of course take him up on! Whatever the case I am thrilled with how this mistake turned out. I just wish I could definitively find out what I have here.

The color is still quite impressive for what it's worth.

And yes, I do think there's a very good chance this is one of the plants that they had which they were calling Samuel Crothers at the time.

Granted, with the nomenclature tides a'turning as they are, and assuming that's what this plant is, then it would be currently be considered a Phrag. Eumelia Arias by those standards I would assume.

 

[dmcmkl]

The color is still quite impressive for what it's worth.

And yes, I do think there's a very good chance this is one of the plants that they had which they were calling Samuel Crothers at the time.

Granted, with the nomenclature tides a'turning as they are, and assuming that's what this plant is, then it would be currently be considered a Phrag. Eumelia Arias by those standards I would assume.

Samuel Crothers was registered in 2012 by Eucagenera as a cross between fischeri and kovachii. Eumilia Arias was registered by Peruflora in 2007 as a cross between schlimii and kovachii. Either way I believe what I have is probably one or the other. Maybe Jason can confirm what he might have had in the nursery at the time that I purchased it. I don't really care if it was made with fischeri or schlimii. I like it either way and glad it came into my possession.