About Phragmipedium kovachii
As some of you may know, there has been quite a bit of controversy about this Peruvian slipper orchid. We have heard of smuggling the first plants into the US. We have heard of a special issue of a publication from Marie Selby Botanical Gardens who wanted to be the first to describe and name this species. They named the plant after the smuggler who brought the plant to them. Now, regardless of the fact that in the AOS publication Orchids Dr. Eric Christenson had described this new species from photos and description of some South American growers (no smuggling or special editions involved) and he had given the plant the species epithet of ‘peruvianum’, the rule of priority applies.
When I mentioned my dissatisfaction about this procedure in one of my letters to Dr. Henry Oakeley, in error accusing the RHS of this (in my mind questionable) ruling, he replied that it was not the RHS but the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature which applies this ruling.
He further advised me that the need to have CITES documents for the international traffic of herbarium specimens will soon be repealed – but I hope that Mr. Kovach’s misguided zeal in smuggling this plant into the US will not be declared legal, retroactively.
 Phragmipedium kovachii |
There are flasks of this species offered (quite legally) by a Peruvian firm, with permits by INRENA, the Peruvian Agricultural Ministry; there had even been a number of these flasks for sale at the Word Orchid Conference in Dijon this past spring. As I write this, there are seedling plants now available from a Canadian source. Dr. Oakeley has nothing but praise for the people who are working at propagating this impressive slipper orchid so that many people can acquire it, grow it and thus have the pressure taken off any wild population of Phrag. kovachii.
That name still grates in my mind. I feel that Dr. Christenson’s suggested name would have been far more appropriate – but who can fight The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, produced by The International Union of Biological Sciences Commission for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants. Whew! What a handle!
By the way – if you really need to get this plant, please be advised that the large flowers of 20 cm across the front of the hot pink slippers grow on an equally large plant – something like the Paphiopedilum kolopakingii which would not fit on a windowsill with its 120 cm spread of leaves.
Now there is yet another new slipper – a small, soft pink South American beauty, called Phragmipedium andreettae. I have seen a picture but I wonder how the plant looks and how soon it will be on the market.
Ingrid Schmidt-Ostrander - Canadian Orchid Congress