Chris,

In the strict taxonomic sense, there is only one officially recognized form,
the flavum form. The rest are more akin to horticultural variants. This is
usually done to recognize the subtle differences between the various
populations. Sometimes a taxonomist will take a closer look at one of the
horticultural forms and raise it to official status, but most of the time
taxonomists aren't fond of the horticultural variants.

See The Orchid Digest, Vol. 67(4) (Oct, Nov, Dec 2003) for an in-depth
treatment of the genus Phragmipedium.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Christopher J Barown" wrote in message
...
I have a qeustion about Phrag. besseae. I understand
that the species is red, and that 'f. flavum' is yellow.
I recently came across 'v. Zumba' and 'v. Paute'. As
far as I can tell 'v. Paute' is the Peruvian form. To
complicate matters one page i found broke besseae into
Peruvian(v. Paute) and Zamoran(v. d'Alessandro), stating
that the Peruvian was found in Peru and Equador, and the
that Zamoran was very localized in Equador.

So my questions a
Are these official variations?

If 'v. Paute' is Peruvian and 'v. d'Alessandro' is Zamoran,
what is 'v. Zumba'?

What do they mean, and what is the difference between them?


Thanks,
Chris