I received an e-mail from Vy Le, an acquaintance from SaPa, along with three pictures on June 9, 2010. In his e-mail he stated "I have just discovered a new Paphiopedium but I didn’t know its botanical name; if possible can you provide me the name of this orchid and whether it exists in Vietnam or anywhere else in the world?".


I was out of town at the time , so I e-mailed him back with a brief message, telling him that this orchid could be a new specie or a hybrid either by nature or cultivation. After that, I forwarded the e-mail to Professor Loc Ke Phan, a Vietnamese botanist who works closely with Leonid Averyanov, a Russian botanist specializing in search of orchids in Vietnam. I also contacted Olaf Gruss, a Paphiopedium expert from Germany so they can verify and do some research about this new orchid.

I could not give Vy Le the direct answers to his questions. First of all, I’m only an orchid hobbyist not a botanist or taxonomist. Even with the professionals, one can’t recognize a new variety by just looking at some pictures without knowledge of their background to figure out the name. Secondly, this orchid is very similar to many of the other popular Paphs in the global markets. Let’s look at the following pictures:

Paph. Lê văn Vy Photo: Lê văn Vy	Paph. phillippinense Photo: lacourdesorchidees.fr	Pap. Mount toro Photo: rv-orchidworks.com
Paph St swithin Photo: midpacificorchids.com	Paph. St swithin Photo: orchidsonline.com.au	Paph. randsii Photo: ladyslipper.com

As you can see, Vy Le’s Paph. has a similarity to the Paph. phillippinense from the Phillippines and Paph. Mount Toro (a cross between Paph phillippinense x Paph stonei).

It also looks like Paph St swithin (Paph rothschildianum x Paph phillippinense) and Paph randsii. However, the short tesselled green foliage from Vy Le’s Paph is more distinctive than the other Paphs with longer, shiny green leaves. Vy confirmed in the second e-mail to me that he found more than three hundred of this orchid in the forest but not in any commercial orchid farms.

Pap. Lê văn Vy

Pap. phillipense

It is too early to conclude that this is a new species or a hybrid.

We’ll leave that to the scientists to make the decision based on their expertise and the genetics of organisms of this orchid. The naming of orchids is more complicated and can be quite complex because of the vast number of species and hybrids in the family. Different experts specialize in different varieties. Dendrobium has more than 1500 species, Bulbophyllum has at least 2000 species, and don’t forget the orchid family is one of the largest families of flowering plants and they grow nearly everywhere in the world. To recognize a new species requires time and knowledge. It also requires other factors like geography, climates, pollination… all of which can affect the size, shape and color of the flower as well the leaves.

Let’s wait and see what the experts have to say. To Vy Le: please keep the location where you found these orchids to yourself so at least we can protect the new treasure of our country.

Translated by Tammy Harrisson