in your interesting report you mention:
>Finally, the third species we found in Slovakia was a Ping
>resembling P.alpina but without yellow spots on lateral flower
>lobes. I couldn't judge it on my own because all plants have
>already finished blooming at the time of our visit. BTW, this
>species is grown in collections under the name P.sp.aff.alpina.
P. alpina has no yellow spots on the lateral flower lobes but only 1-3
yellow spots on the central lobe of the lower lip. This is at least true
for the populations in the french, italian, swiss and austrian Alps, the
Pyrennees, Scandinavia and Siberia. From the Himalaya I have not seen
flowering material. There is almost no variability within the species. So
what you found was probably just normal P. alpina. Is there any detailed
description about P.sp.aff.alpina?
The only aberrant form I have seen from this species are specimens where
the yellow colour of the spots is not the typically intensive yellow but a
very pale, whitish yellow so that the flowers seem almost to be albinos. I
have found that type in few specimens at two sites among the normal type in
the Swiss Alps.
In case of interest I can send you P. alpina from the central alps for
comparison. However this species is not easy to grow in lowland conditions.
Juerg
_______________________________________________________________
Dr. Juerg Steiger, Institut fuer Aus-, Weiter- und Fortbildung IAWF
University of Bern, Inselspital 37a, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland
Office: +41 (0)31 632 98 87, Home: +41 (0)31 972 19 79
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