Orchid of the day: Paphiopedilum philippinense

Paphiopedilum philippinense is native to the Philippines and Northern Borneo. This orchid is found at sea level and up to elevations of 500 meter on limestone cliffs & boulders. The flowers are large, almost 9 inches or 22.5 cm in size, with beautiful corkscrew sepal and with brown purple inflorescence. The leaves are thick, clear and glossy green. 

Paphiopedilum philippinense is estimated to produce 3 to 5 flowers at a single time. In the wild, peak flowering season is between January and April. There are 2 other varieties & forms of this orchid; Paphipedilum philippinense fma alboflavum (albino form) and Paphipedilum philippinense var. roebelenii.

A) April 4th 2014. Flower stem slowly growing.

B) Close up of the flower stem. 

C) April 7th. It looks like we could have four flowers at this point.

D) April 13th.

E) April 22nd. Some of the buds were opening up and we thought we would see five flowers.

F) April 28th. It turns out 6 flowers were developing.

Our Paphipedilum philippinense appeared to exceed expectations. The buds began to come out in April and to our surprise, we ended up with six flowers instead of three to five flowers as stated in the different orchid websites about this orchid. It was around April 28th that we noticed a clear 6th bud.

G) May 4th. The weather was great and almost all the flowers were in full bloom. Anthony decided to join in. 

H) May 19th. All flowers completely open and looked exotically beautiful.

I) A different angle of all 6 flowers in full bloom.

J) Frontal close up

K) Side profile close up

The length of our flowers were been 18 to 20 cm or 7 to 9 inches. This is quite a specimen! I hope the flowers would last 2 to 4 weeks more.  As you can see, this post is a real labor of love. Please enjoy and share these photos.