Splitting hairs.

[arcticshaun]

Well, now there is another plant for my wishlist. Great discussion with pics is just another reason this forum rocks.

Shaun

 

[Rick]

Man Leo

That hirsut is really hairy! I think mine is not to far off if my picture was one the same scale. It's pretty weird, but mine also has much more hair up until the bud opens, and as the flower ages it seems to get sparser (to what you see in the picture posted).

I'd guestimate the hair length on mine is also about 1/8" or so. I doubt though that I'll ever be able to narrow a source. That is awesome that you think yours may have originated from Nepal.

It seems like type hirsutisimum is relatively hard to come across compared to esquirolei. Ironic since the nominal form has such a huge range compared to the varieties.

Have you ever selfed this plant?

As you mentioned, you see allot of variation among your plants. Do you have any reason to suspect that you have either natural or man made intergrades of the two varieties?

 

[slippertalker]

Both of these species are easy to grow and bloom, especially as they grow large plants. I'm not aware of a lot of seedlings produced from either plant other than the albinistic forms. If you see them next to each other, they are quite different yet closely related. Paph hirsutissimum is quite hirsute, hence the name and Paph esquirolei is less so. One of the easier differences to spot are the pubescent green stems with dark purple hairs with Paph hirsutissimum and the purple black pubescent inflorences with Paph esquirolei.

Both of these species have been grown for many years and are easily available by division.

 

[SlipperKing]

Love those pics guys! super comparison.

 

[Rick]

Both of these species are easy to grow and bloom, especially as they grow large plants. I'm not aware of a lot of seedlings produced from either plant other than the albinistic forms. If you see them next to each other, they are quite different yet closely related. Paph hirsutissimum is quite hirsute, hence the name and Paph esquirolei is less so. One of the easier differences to spot are the pubescent green stems with dark purple hairs with Paph hirsutissimum and the purple black pubescent inflorences with Paph esquirolei.

Both of these species have been grown for many years and are easily available by division.

They do grow well and are readily divided, but I beleive it was Sanderianum who documented mass seedling production of this species that would have included indiscriminate crossing of the forms and undocumented hybridization of this taxa with other species. If species seedlings of hirsut or esquirolei are trully rare, then that would be encouraging to consider whether the plants in our collections are directly descended from jungle collected ancestors, and not man made intergrades of the different forms.

However, I think this species (and forms) have been seed raised in greater quantities than you think. :wink: