Love this phal!! It always puts on a lovely show. I did get a few buds to blast by rearranging my grow area and leaving this guy over top of a heater vent, but the show was still lovely. Often I pick up a faint jasmine scent from this guy. I'm not sure what the varietal name adds to the orchid but I love it none the less.
P stuartiana has long been one of my favorite Phals. Yours is wonderful with the spotting extending onto the lip as it does! The fragrance of this species is always delightful as well. Good growing!
That is really pretty, scent sounds nice too, the third pic with the light to one side shining through some of the flowers is a really nicely composed picture.
Beautiful orchid! I just purchased one that hasn't arrived yet, and saw on an online nursery that these aren't small or even medium phals. I thought I was getting an almost miniature! How big do they get, and how tall can the spikes get?
Phal stuartiana can get quite large. I've had seedlings bloom with a leaf span of about 8 or 9 inches, but a mature plant can easily double that size. Two-foot spikes aren't at all uncommon on such a plant, and longer is possible.
That said, it's nothing close to the largest Phal species, and in my opinion should be welcome in the collection of any Phal fan.
I haven't seen the publication for Phalaenopsis stuartiana var. punctatissima Rchb.f. 1882 or the more current Phalaenopsis stuartiana f. punctatissima (Rchb.f.) Christenson 2001, so I don't know exactly how they are defined. In either case, punctatissima just means very speckled. I'm not sure I would call this very speckled compared to the typical form of the species, but its a pretty nice stuartiana anyway.