Awhile ago I was browsing in an antique book store and found "Indian Orchids: A Guide to Identification and Culture" by U.C. Pradhan, one of India's foremost orchid experts, and the progenitor of a long line of Pradhans recently figured in Orchids Magazine. I was pleased to find this - it was old, cheap, and had a number of interesting natural hybrid records in it I'd never seen before or since. It turns out that, much like Averyanov's work in Vietnam, there is rampant hybridization in naturally occurring slipper populations, but always limited to a few plants out of thousands. The only people who would ever see such things were the collectors out in the field prior to exporting to the US. And maybe Ray Rands or like personages who did a great deal of importing. One of these, the natural hybrid of venustum and fairrieanum, was named Paph. xpradhanii after one of Mr. Pradhan's relatives. Of course, ony a few were ever found, and I have never found any references to them in US literature. So imagine my surprise at finding a few in an old collection of a good friend of Ray Rands!! I bought one, flowered it, and took it to judging; it seems dead in the middle of venustum and fairrieanum in terms of flower qualities. Here it is, named after my newborn son (5 weeks old!!): Paph. xpradhanii 'Kate's Baby' CBR/AOS. (photos by Eric Hunt)

very very pretty:heart::heart::heart:

WOW thats a very nice and interesting paph!!!

Interesting, I've never seen a natural hybrid awarded as a CBR which is a species award.

I remember when Rands imported these, and the conjecture was that it was either a new species or a cross of fairreanum x venustum or wardii. Not too long afterwards, it was concluded that it was fairreanum x venustum.

This one has nice form for the cross....

That is quite a lovely natural hybrid and certainly very interesting. Thank you for sharing it with us!

As far as the so-called "botanical awards" - CHMs, CBRs and the older CBR, the record on natural hybrids is pretty spotty, especially with paphs.

This from the first line of the description of the CBR from the Handbook on Judging:
"Awarded to a cultivar of a species, subspecies, variety or natural hybrid deemed especially worthy of recognition for rarity, novelty or educational value previously unrecorded by AOS."

The only previous correctly named natural hybrid paph awarded by the AOS is of course Paph. xfanaticum, which was granted an HCC when first awarded. Paph. Conco-bellatulum, which correctly should be named Paph. xconco-bellatulum when a natural hybrid rather than the man-made Paph. Conco-bellatulum, was awarded an HCC for a man-made clone first (in 1983) and then awarded a CHM (to the clone 'MAJ' in 1986), which would presumably only be awarded to a jungle-collected plant of the natural hybrid (as no other indications of it being special can be deduced from the awards description). There are about 20 natural hybrids; it's interesting so few are seen at judging. This may be due to what I alluded to in my original post - not many were ever found in large enough numbers to justify export. (check the paph wikipedia page for more info on natural hybrids and a list)

On the other hand, most paph species (with of course the FCC to the first armeniacum being a glaring exception) are given their due CBR or CHM when first seen; this includes varieties such as aureums or albas.

-Tim

Very nice and interesting.

How does the name of the hybrid work? The hybrid between these species is Paph Pandion yet you refer to it as xpradhanii, named by Pradhan I assume. Do you need to differentiate between a natural hybrid and a human made hybrid or are you recognising xpradhanii because it was used first?

David

Very nice and I like the combination of the two species!

Oh and I think one of our members here from India is Mr. Pradhan's nephew or related to him.

WOW!
Like it a lot!
Thanks for sharing

Very nice and interesting.

How does the name of the hybrid work? The hybrid between these species is Paph Pandion yet you refer to it as xpradhanii, named by Pradhan I assume. Do you need to differentiate between a natural hybrid and a human made hybrid or are you recognising xpradhanii because it was used first?

David

One needs to differentiate based on whether or not the plant is a natural hybrid or a man-made one. I refer to the hybrid as xpradhanii because it is a wild-collected plant, collected in the wild as the natural hybrid. If I just crossed the two species myself, then it would be Pandion.

Beautiful plant!! Congratulations on the award!!