Paph. spicerianum x sib (3" Blooming Size - not in flower)

A Hidden Frog Slipper Orchidm

This true Paphiopedilum species is a foundational plant in orchid history, responsible for much of the breeding that gave us modern complex hybrids. It is a compact, terrestrial grower that sends up single-flowered spikes from neat fans of dull green leaves speckled with purple at the base.

The bloom is impossible to mistake. A snow-white dorsal sepal with a stark purple mid-vein folds forward over the pouch like a small hood. The petals are yellowish-green with deeply ruffled, purplish-brown margins, curving downward beside a glossy brownish-purple pouch. At the center, the vividly patterned staminode reads perfectly as the head of a tiny frog.

If you grow slipper orchids, this is the plant that started it all. It asks for surprisingly little space, performs flawlessly at intermediate household temperatures, and carries a flower that demands you stop and look at it every time you walk past. Between the rippling petals, the sharp angles of the hood, and that perfectly centered little amphibian staring back at you, it is an endlessly entertaining species to keep on a windowsill.

The Story of Paphiopedilum spicerianum

Paphiopedilum spicerianum (Rchb.f.) Pfitzer 1888 grows across Assam, Bhutan, Myanmar, and the Yunnan province of China. It lives between 1,000 and 4,200 feet in elevation, clinging to steep limestone walls and rocky gorges. Plants sit in leaf litter and moss in the deep shade of the surrounding forest, watered heavily by seasonal rains.

The species arrived in England by complete accident. In 1878, a small, unidentifiable plant bloomed in the Wimbledon greenhouse of Mrs. Spicer, having hitchhiked in a shipment of other orchids from her son's tea plantation in Assam. The Veitch nursery took one look at the flower and immediately left a cheque for seventy guineas. Importers went wild trying to find its origin. Frederick Sander secretly dispatched his collector, Mr. Fostermann, who traveled to Assam, tracked down the Spicer estate, waded up a river gorge, and eventually dragged the plants off a sheer cliff face with bamboo rakes.

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