Phalaenopsis
parishii (Rchb.f 1865)
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Révérend
Parish's Phalaenopsis
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Distribution
: Myanmar, Indes, Thaïlande
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| Epiphytic
plant with many roots, fleshy, long, not very flexuous, glabrous. Very short stem, completely enclosed by imbricating leaf-sheaths. Leaves fleshy, arcuate or pendent, at cuneate base widening more or less abruptly in a limb obovate or elliptic, sometimes asymmetrical, canaliculate above, slightly carinate below, acute or obtuse of more than 12 cm. long and 5 cm. wide, often smaller. Flower stalk rather thin, erect or arcuate, little flowered, 5 to 9 flowers with the rachis in zigzag, being able to exceed 14 cm. Bracts alternate, ovate, cucullate, acute, of 3 mm. Small flowers, of 2 cm. Sepal dorsal elliptic oblong-elliptic or rounded, acute or obtuse. Lateral sepals oblique, obovate or sub-orbicular, acute or obtuse. Petals cuneate at base then obovate or obovate-elliptic, obtuse. |
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| Lip 3-lobed, joined with right angle with the column base by a very short stalk. Lateral lobes directed outwards forwards, triangular, with a distinct longitudinal fleshy keel. Midlobe mobile triangular-auriculate, somewhat convex, acute or obtuse. Its base is provided of a very mean gibbosity , semicircular, whose sides are fringed. At the junction of the midlobe and lateral lobes one finds a fleshy projection, bilobate, flattened, each lobe being forked. Short column, fleshy, at very dilated base. Pedicellate ovary 15 mm or more long. | |
Observations
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Flowering primarily at the end of the winter and in spring. Sepals and petals of a milky white. Mauve midian lobe with purple-magenta, lateral lobes yellow stained of mauve. Base column spotted of brown. The plants grow at an altitude of approximately 500 meters (minima). |
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Historique
| Discovered
in 1864 by the reverend C.Parish who sent plants to Low company and
to botanical garden of Kew. With E.S.Berkeley in two articles, one in the Gardeners'Chronicle in 1887, the other in the Orchid Review in 1893 one can take note of the following facts: "The best varieties I ever saw of this were in the mountain district, where I found it in very damp positions growing on the branches of trees hanging over the river; the branches on which the plants were growing were covered with live moss, in which the roots grow freely, and the plants were altogether much more robust than those found in the hills and exposed to very unfavorable conditions during the dry season. This plant and Phalaenopsis Lowii are frequently deciduous in the country in which they grow; only a few plants in very favorable and sheltered positions retaining their leaves during the dry season. If the rain set in late, before the leaves get a fait start, it is not unusual to see the plant in flower before the leaves develop. It is generally found on boughs of trees covered with moss; it is a subject to great heat and moisture during the growing season. In cultivation it will retain its leaves troughout the winter, if the moss at its roots is kept slightly damp (no wet) during the resting season. To flower it well it is necessary to start it as early as possible, so as to encourage leaves growth. No doubt it flowers better when the leaf growth is luxuriant." In culture, the plants keep their foliage the winter if one continues to maintain them slightly wet, without any excess. This species requires more light than other Phalaenopsis, and a permanent moisture of about 80 to 90%. |
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