Paphiopedilum

Paphiopedilum is a genus of the Lady slipper orchid subfamily Cypripedioideae of the flowering plant family Orchidaceae. The genus comprises some 80 accepted taxa including several natural hybrids. The genus is native to Indo-Malesia (South China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands) and India.
The species and their hybrids are extensively cultivated, and are known as either paphiopedilums, or by the abbreviation paphs in horticulture.
The type species of this genus is Paphiopedilum insigne.

Taxonomy and systematics


Paphiopedilum × wenshanense (center), a natural hybrid of the Egg-in-a-nest orchid (P. bellatulum, top right) and P. concolor
The genus name Paphiopedilum was established by Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer in 1886; it is derived from Paphos (a city in Cyprus, a place sacred to Aphrodite. It was said she landed at the site when rose from the sea as her birth.) and Ancient Greek pedilon "slipper". Ironically, no paphiopedilum occurs on Cyprus – at least not as the genus is understood today. But it was long mixed up with its Holarctic relative Cypripedium, which indeed grows in the Mediterranean region. Paphiopedilum was finally decided to be a valid taxon in 1959, but its use has become restricted to eastern Asian species in our time.

Subdivisions

The genus Paphiopedilum has been divided into several subgenera, and then further into sections and subsections:
  • Subgenus Parvisepalum
  • Subgenus Brachypetalum
  • Subgenus Polyantha[verification needed]
    • Section Mastigopetalum
    • Section Polyantha
    • Section Mystropetalum
    • Section Stictopetalum
    • Section Paphiopedilum
    • Section Ceratopetalum
    • Section Cymatopetalum
    • Section Thiopetalum
  • Subgenus Sigmatopetalum
    • Section Spathopetalum
      • Subsection Macronidium
      • Subsection Spathopetalum
    • Section Blepharopetalum
    • Section Mastersianum
    • Section Punctatum
    • Section Barbata
      • Subsection Lorapetalum
      • Subsection Chloroneura
    • Section Planipetalum
    • Section Venustum
  • Subgenus Cochlopetalum

Selected species

There are more than 550 taxa in this genus, including some 80 valid species. Some notable species and their natural hybrids are listed here, together with some assorted varieties and forms:

See also

Nhận xét