Paphiopedilum schmidtianum   KRAENZLIN

Section: Barbata

Synonym: Paph. wolterianum var. schmidtianum

 

Paph. schmidtianum was considered lost for a long time. All that was known was that this plant is said to grow on the island of Koh Chang in southern Thailand. So far, this plant was more of a Paph. assigned to callosum complex.

In issue 5/76 of Orchid Digest, J.A. FOWLIE reported on two expeditions he and Lance BIRK made to the site where Paph. schmidtianum was found. This report was reprinted in Schlechteriana magazine issue 1 in 1992.

The plants were described from the island of Koh Chang (Elephant Island). The island is completely covered with mountain ranges - the highest point is Table Mount at 800 meters.

 

In 1900, Johs. SCHMIDT collected various plants on the island, including three flowers of a lady's slipper orchid. KRAENSLIN described the plants in 1901 as Cypripedium schmidtianum on page 13 of the Jorn. De Botanique. He described the petals as very curved and compared the plants with Paph. fairrieanum or Paph. dayanum

In his monograph in 1903, E. PFITZER reduced this taxon to a synonym of Paph. callosum.

Despite intensive searches involving locals, FOWLIE and BIRK were unable to find any plants of this Paphiopedilum, although locals repeatedly pointed out, based on the pictures of Paph. callosum or Paph. wolterianum shown, that plants of this species were said to grow on the island.

 

In 2015, lady's slippers were imported from the island of Koh Chang to a nursery in Germany. Over the next few years, the flowers were eagerly awaited. In 2016, the first plant blossomed and looked more like Paph. wolterianum than Paph. callosum. It has not been determined who ultimately chose the name Paph. wolterianum var. schmidtianum for this plant - the occurrence of Paph. wolterianum on the opposite mainland may have played a role. The staminodium is more similar to Paph. cerveranum - but the occurrence of this is more than 500 kilometers to the north.