Bulbo. aff. grandiflorum "green"

[christerb]

I got this with the name Bulbo. arfakianum var. album. I am not sure why it was labelled this, but possibly the lower profile of the flower, and that the lower sepals are fused before completely opening might have fooled people. The petals have more of the look that can be seen on Bulbo. grandiflorum. The flower is smaller than on that species though. I have the normal form of that species in spike right now too.


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Regards,

Christer

[31drew31]

Very nice flower Christer, it seems Bulbo's often get mislabeled.

[christerb]

Thanks Drew!

True, unless the leaf/pseudobulbs look quite unique, so you can ask the vendor (or better yet see them for yourself) before the purchase, you don't really know what you get. I got some recently which I don't need to flower to see that they are not what they were labelled.

Funny thing is that the plant posted above is the only one I have knowingly bought mislabeled, hoping that it would be just what I got. Years before I had been eying this species in asian collections before finally getting my hands on a specimen.

Regards,

Christer

[H20]

Amazing plant, where did you get this one, Amos from asiatic green has one but I missed out on it when I ordered from him. It's one of my favorites, I just love to colour and pattern.

I was just wondering about the ciliate lip, maybe you can clear up some of the confusion. Siegerist says that burfordiense has a ciliate lip as where grandiflorum does not. Thoms says the opposite. Thoughts??

Bulbo's really do get mislabeled but like you said you can tell certain groups from each other based on plant growth but this doesn't really help when you buy over the Internet haha

[christerb]

where did you get this one

Hi,

I got it more than a year ago from a nursery in Germany, Orchids and More.

I was just wondering about the ciliate lip, maybe you can clear up some of the confusion. Siegerist says that burfordiense has a ciliate lip as where grandiflorum does not. Thoms says the opposite. Thoughts??

It is Siegerist who is correct, although not very surprising since she was one of the co-authors describing this species. Actually this discrepancy came up on another forum while discussing this species. Apparently, Bill Thoms is aware of the error, but hadn't been able to correct it in the first batch of books.

Kew Monocot list have Bulbo. burfordiense as a synonym to Bulbo. grandiflorum. Personally, I am doubtful about separating of these two, since the differences are so small. I don't doubt they found valid differences between the examined specimens. However, whats not to say that it could be variation within a species, and the question is could this variation be found in specimens in the same population. I don't know how many specimens that was examined from the original location. The type of Bulbo. grandiflorum may have been an exceptional specimen, which caught the eye of the collector.

One odd thing in my eyes, is that according to the info I have read Bulbo. grandiflorum is distributed in Sumatra, Sulawesi, Moluccas and PNG, while Bulbo. burfordiense is confined to PNG. Yet, going by the characteristics it seems that the majority of the plants in cultivation is the latter species, while the wide-spread Bulbo. grandiflorum is rare in cultivation.

However, the question is if we have to worry about this confusion in the future. From what I read on another forum; in the new book 'Bulbophyllum of Sulawesi' by Vermeulen/O'Byrne they will reduce Bulbo. burfordiense to a synonym. The latter author apparently did have them as separate entities in his earlier book: A to Z of South East Asian Orchid Species, vol. 1. Thus I believe he should have good knowledge about this to now have a different point of view.

This once again raises the question if Bulbo. fraudulentum is a genuine species, or if Kew Monocot list is correct that it is a synonym to Bulbo. arfakianum. However, going back to Bulbo. grandiflorum, both Bulbo. cominsii and Bulbo. micholitzii is considered synonyms to this species in Kew Monocot list too, and I am not so sure about the former.

Regards,

Christer

[max]

Great photos of this species!
I got one from Orchids & more too. It flowered just a single time since I got it. I will also lable mine as B. aff. grandiflorum.

Under what conditions do you grow it?


Here is a photo of mine flower:

[christerb]

Thanks! I am not sure what induced the flowering, so I don't think I can help you there. I have moved this plant around this past year from a terrarium, then outside in the room (because of limited growing space), and then moving it into a new terrarium. Right now I have it below 2x54W T5, warm temps 20-27 d.C, humid, but with good air circulation, so nothing out of the ordinary.

p.s. I remember seeing that photo, that was one of the things that made me believe that I was on the right track when I was searching for this species.

Regards,

Christer