Appreciation of the Rare Chun Jian Variety Mengding Qizhen

In the spring of 1997, a cluster of Chun Jian (Cymbidium tortisepalum) that an orchid farmer in Zhongfeng Township, Mingshan County had collected from the mountains and was growing himself produced a single flower spike; all three buds looked somewhat unusual. After pinching off the middle bud, Mr. Huang, an orchid enthusiast from the same county, bought the plant at a relatively low price and that same year entered the flower in the Qionglai Spring Orchid Show. Because the middle bloom had been pinched off, many orchid enthusiasts who wanted to buy it worried that the removed bloom might not be an unusual flower, so no one dared to reach out and claim the prize. Later, owing to poor cultivation by Mr. Huang, the plant nearly vanished from the world. Dai Fuzhi, an orchid enthusiast from Mingshan County, decisively offered more than 10,000 yuan and bought the surviving one and a half plants, naming it "Mengding Qizhen" (Mengding Rare Treasure), and tended it with great care. Hard work pays off: in the spring of 2005, after seven years of silence, Mengding Qizhen bloomed again. This flower is truly a new variety among chrysanthemum-type Chun Jian orchids, and a fine one at that. Because the outer five petals are normal petals while the flower center is entirely composed of countless lip segments and column parts, the bloom is large and vivid; among Chun Jian flowers of this type that have appeared so far, none can surpass it.