A top-grade Huilan (Cymbidium faberi) with outstanding appearance, worthy of being called a fine specimen among orchids

Petal type:  Huilan green-shell plum petal.

History:  Selected by Feng Changjin of Hangzhou Gongcheng Garden in the Xinchou year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1901). According to "A Brief History of Orchids and Huilan": "In the fourth month of the Xinchou year of the Guangxu reign, orchid enthusiasts of Hangzhou held a Huilan flower show at Haihui Temple on Chenghuang Mountain. Zang Feibo, a bagong scholar from Tonglu, brought a green Huilan to the show. The three petals had extremely broad heads but very fine bases, tightly edged, thick-fleshed, with separate pouches and shallow soft pocket-like fringed petals, a large round lip, and a slender and long stem; it was an excellent example of the official-type narcissus. The grass resembled Jin'ao but was finer, with about twenty-plus tubes per full pot, each tube priced at 200 yuan. That year it happened that the green-flowered 'Jipin' was discovered, and everyone paid attention to the new flower, and because Zang's asking price was too high, no one inquired about it." Nowadays the orchid world also calls it "Old Jipin," mainly to distinguish it from the later-selected "Jiangnan New Jipin."

Characteristics: Five petals in separate pouches, outer petals with round heads, tightly edged, fine bases, thick petals, and petal tips forming a spoon shape with a pocket. The inner fringed petals are hard fringed, and the lip is a large dragon-swallowing lip. Jipin is listed among the New Eight Varieties of Huilan, a superior grade among spoon-type Huilan plum petals; the drawback of Jipin is that the flower stalk is slightly thick.