Phragmipedium besseae var dalessandroi

[SelectOrchids]

Dalessandroi was just the price here. I think it's really outrageous what Ecugenera is doing here, aren't they worried about their reputation at all? The plant delivered does not bear a single characteristic of dalessandroi, regardless of whether it is a species or a variety

The problem lies with the collectors too. They may mix a few dalessandroi with a stockpile of other colonies from ' nearby' and sell the whole batch as 'dalessandroi'.

 

[NYEric]

I think you missed my point… At any rate, do report back what their response is to your complaint. I’m sure we are all curious…

Toy robot puppies.

 

[Heather]

Back when I was writing the articles in my prior post, in the 2018-2020 timeframe, I was in contact with several plant genetics labs that had done, or I was given information had in flight, genetic analysis of Phramipediums. I was told that the a mapping of the genome for Mexipedium (we all agree this is not a Phragmipedium at this point?) was ongoing at a major University in New York. I contacted the person in charge. We had a long discussion about the topic. I was told that mapping the genome is a long and exhaustive process and is very different than counting the number of chromosomes. I saw pictures of the plants and they were enormous and yes, I was told that ~25 pounds of material were, are being used. Again, to be clear, we are not talking about counting the number of chromosomes but mapping the entire genome.

As I have not seen the final publication, only a draft, I will wait for the final product before opining further. Honestly I am not sure where this effort is at the moment, nor can I speak for why so much source material is/was necessary.

This is what we are looking for, correct? Because the testing on the chromosome count that has been done to date demonstrates that the number of chromosomes is variable, and not static. There is research done on other genera of flowering plants, of which Phragmipedium are a part, that also concludes that different chromosomes numbers is by no means unusual or out of the ordinary. I reference one of these studies in the checklist.

Best,

I stumbled on a thread about this study on Facebook today…



Author said I could share here so here are some screen shots also.