Species - superbiens

Paphiopedilum superbiens STEIN

Section: Barbata

Synonym: Paph. curtisii ?

The History of Paph. superbiens or the quite similar Paph. curtisii is very confused.

Paph. superbiens was mentioned for the first time in 1855 when a plant of it was imported to England by ROLLISON and later sold to Consul SCHILLER.
REICHENBACH described the plant in the Bonplandia as Paph. superbiens . A second plant was found in 1857 by the VEITCH company between an import of Paph. barbatum. This plant is said to have been found in the mountains of Sumatra.

In 1882, Charles CURTIS, a collector of VEICHT, found a larger population of these plants in Sumatra and brought them to Europe.
The resemblance to the well-known Paph. superbiens was noticed, however those found had paphs. smaller flowers with slightly shorter petals.
REICHENBACH took this as an opportunity to find these plants as Paph. curtisii to described.

During field research in Sumatra, Dr. FOWLIE and Lance A. BIRK found the Paph. curtisii at altitudes between 900 and 1400 meters in the mountains around Lake Toba,
while the Paph. superbiens further south at an altitude of 600 meters on Gunung Keringei near the town of Tapan.

Paph. superbiens and Paph. curtisii are therefore often regarded as the two species that can be distinguished most easily by the color of their leaves. Differences in the flower can hardly be made out, superbiens almost always shows a greenish color in the flag. However, both species have been crossed with each other, which makes identification almost impossible. Some taxonomists see Paph. curtisii merely as a variety or synonym of Paph. superbiens. BRAEM suspects that Paph. curtisii could be an upland form of Paph. superbiens.

Holger Perner solved the riddle with his article in the Orchideenjournal issue 4 / 2012: It is the "real" (lost) Paph. superbiens.

The image below from the article shows a flowering plant (right) with John Day's 136-year-old original drawing: