How to Grow and Care for Paphiopedilum markianum

Scientific name: Paphiopedilum markianum Fowlie

Morphological characteristics:

A terrestrial or semi-epiphytic plant.

Leaves basal, distichous, usually 2-3; leaf blades narrowly oblong, 15-25 cm long, 2.1-3.5 cm wide, apex obtuse and often with a small cleft or notch, green, slightly paler on the underside, hairless, base narrowed into a petiole and conduplicate, overlapping each other. Scape erect, 20-25 cm long, purple, covered with short hairs, bearing 1 flower at the apex; bract nearly elliptic, 3.5-6 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, green with purple spots; pedicel and ovary 3.5-4.5 cm long, covered with short hairs.

Flower large; dorsal sepal yellow-green with 3 thick purple longitudinal stripes, synsepal pale yellow-green with fine purple-brown lines at the base, petals yellow-green from the base to the middle with 2 thick purple-brown longitudinal stripes in the center, upper part pale purplish-red, lip pale yellow-green with a purple-brown flush, staminode yellow-green but with a purple patch in the center.

Dorsal sepal broadly ovate to very broadly obovate, 4-4.5 cm long, 2.8-4 cm wide, apex often with a short mucro, back sparsely pubescent; synsepal elliptic-ovate, 3-4 cm long, about 2 cm wide, back sparsely pubescent; petals nearly spatulate, 6-6.5 cm long, 3-4 cm wide, margins (especially from the middle to the base) wavy; lip slipper-shaped, base with a broad stalk 1.5-2 cm long; pouch nearly elliptic, 2.5-3 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, mouth of the pouch extremely broad, with 1 erect ear on each side, the margins in front of the two ears not incurved, bottom of the pouch hairy; staminode nearly elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 1.2-1.5 cm long, 8-9 mm wide, with an umbilical protrusion in the center.

Flowering period: June-August.

Origin:

Produced in Fugong (Bijiang) and Lushui (on the way from Pianma to Liuku), Yunnan

Growth habits:

Grows in shaded, rocky places under forest or at the edge of valley scrub at an altitude of 1500-2200 m.