Only the bottom one - which is also emarginate (notch is almost
triangular) the others are rather oblong in shape (the "middle" two
maybe fractionally blunter than the "upper" two...) The markings on the
flower are typical P.moranensis (darker (pink) surrounding & dividing
white stripe into two parts). The lower three lobes are held in a flat
plane. The upper/middle lobes are about 13 x 8 mm, the lower about 18 x
12 mm and the spur is roughly 45 mm long (with a bend about halfway
along its length) and changes from pinkish to white to greenish
(greenish near the the tip). The scape is glandular over its entire
length. The mid-rib of the leaf has a noticable fine groove running
along it.
As a matter of interest (or not...), P. "Pico de Orizaba" has considerably
more elongated lobes and the markings on edges of the lobes (around the white
stripes) are extremely dark (whereas the thin center stripe marking is only
a little darker than the lobe colour). The curious thing about the flower is
that the middle lobes are twisted so that they are at about 90o to the plane
of the lower lobe (with the normally front surfaces facing upward). The spur
is pretty much uniformly purplish. The scape is almost entirely glabrous with
only the top inch having any noticable (stalked) glands. The midrib of the
leaf does not have a groove and is very pale or white and obviously triangular
(being very broad towards the centre of the rosette).
>>Is my plant likely to be a P. moranensis var. caudata, P. macrophylla or is
>>it totally mislabelled?
>
>It is probably a member of sect.Orcheosanthus (the "enfant terrible" in the
>genus).
>>I've just picked up a new Ping hybrid - P. (morrii x ehlersae) x
>>grandiflora. I can't find any mention of a P. morrii in my literature
>>- is this another Mexican Ping?
>
>
>I have never seen this name before. Where did you pick it up?
(No prizes for guessing... ;-) ) I got it from Collectors' Corner at
Gardenworld (a "local" nursery complex). They occasionally bring in some new
varieties of plants (making a change from the usual Dionaea, Drosera and
anonymous Sarracenia hybrids...) This appears to be a small batch that came
in recently - there are about three plants each of the new hybrid and also
P. "Pico de Orizaba" (although for some reason all the plants in the nurseries
are appearing to be entering dormancy - mine's the only one that I've seen in
flower so far). There was no labelling to indicate the source of the plants.
I fancy that morrii *could* be a mislabelling of P. moranensis (something of
a slang form - like Morris Minors are dubbed "Morry"s... ;-) ) If so, this
would make sense, since P. x "Sethos" (moranensis x ehlersae) is very common
in the CP-selling nurseries here. The only source of doubt is the two "i"s
- this does make P. morrii look like it could be a genuine name.
>> This plant has the most leaves I've ever seen on a Ping. (I
>>count about 30 visible live leaves, including "buds" at the moment!)
>
>These come from _P.ehlersiae_.
I just did a quick check on my P. ehlersae - it only has 28 leaves... I
think that it's just that P. ehlersae has such small leaves (and hence, a
small rosette) that makes it look less impressive than the hybrid (though it
is very pretty and certainly much tidier looking than the hybrid :-) )
BFN
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Taylor [Catweasel] | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
| rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au | Department of Applied Physics |
| | Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+