Okie, just like my
Vanda roxburghii pics, I finally got them.
Paphiopedilum praestans is a very uncommon species in the US, primarily because of confusion with the species and close looking hybrids, which may contain 'praestans' parentage, and may not... so here is the true
Paph. praestans to refer to. It only produced a single flower this year, I accidentally bumped off one bud, but it's ill performance makes me want to work on this plant more and more to produce some better results. Okie, enough jabber...
These are the smaller pics, and under the pics is the URL reference to the high-resolution pics of the coinciding picture.
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j186/pamahon/B-1.jpg
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j186/pamahon/BBB.jpg
This is to show the staminodial shield and its angle, which is another way of identifying the phonies from the true species... click the URL to get a better pic for a clearer identification...
-P.A. Mahon