J Fortuna wrote:

This thread inspired me to research the paph cochlopetalum group a bit more,
and here are some of the links that I found.

I started out with the hope to learn more about the different species in
this group to be able to differentiate them better, but I fear that I have
given up on that idea. While some of these species are a bit more distinct
than the others, I think this is in general a subgenus that has species with
a lot of similarities, and since there are also a lot of hybrids that look
similar, and there is some variability even among siblings of the same seed
capsule, I have given up on the idea of trying to differentiate these, and
have decided to just enjoy them.



You've come to the same conclusion I have about this group. My
personal opinion is that there are perhaps two or three really distinct
species, and the rest are just varieties (if that) of these. I've
bloomed a lot of these and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference
without the tag. Which leads me to believe that there isn't any real
difference. I suspect this is compounded by taxonomic confusion and
propagation. Many 'varieties' of the same species were crossed
together, and sold as the species. Of course this was before those
varieties were promoted to species rank. So... you have a lot of plants
out there labeled as species which are actually (by current RHS
registration criteria) actually primary hybrids. Again, I suspect that
if they are that similar they really aren't distinct species, but I'm
not a taxonomist.

Rob

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