I
Should Phalaenopsis hieroglyphica and
Phalaenopsis lueddemanniana
be merged as one species?
Wally Suarez
f you are a long time orchidist, who is well-informed
with how present species were
treated during their early history,
you might think that the question
above is a long outdated one, and
one that has already been resolved
32 years ago, when Dr. Herman
Sweet’s The Genus Phalaenopsis
was published. In the said work,
Dr. Sweet mentioned, for Phalaenopsis hieroglyphica, “Although this
species was recognized as a variety
of Phalaenopsis Lueddemanniana, I 1
fail to find any connecting links in
the variation pattern of P. Lueddemanniana, both in color
and morphology, which would include such extremes as
this species exhibits. The unique color pattern; the very
distinct basal callosity coupled with the unusually large
size of the flower indeed warrant the recognition of a specific status.”
However, after seeing a good number of specimens, from
the two taxa, from many parts of the country where they
occur, I kept on encountering plants whose flowers seem
to fall midway between the presumed distinguishing characters of both P. hieroglyphica and P. lueddemanniana. But
first, let’s review the two taxa.
Botanical history and description
Phalaenopsis lueddemanniana, the older of
the two names, was described by the younger 3
Reichenbach in 1865 and was based from
a plant cultivated, by M. Lueddemann,
in Paris. Lueddemann was
said to be the first Euro- 2
pean to have the flowered
the species, although other
plants also flowered simultaneously in several collections at about the same
time. At the time of its introduction, by Hugh Low,
some of the plants were
18
Phalaenopsis | Third Quarter | Volume 23 | 2013
thought to be P. equestris and were
thrown away, until the remaining
plants flowered and the mistake
realized. The type locality is not
known.
The known range of this species includes the following: Luzon
(Apayao, Bataan, Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Kalinga, Laguna,
Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Quezon, Rizal and Sorsogon); Polillo;
Palawan; Leyte; Negros; and Mindanao (Agusan, Davao and Lanao).
Color-wise, this species possesses some of the brightest hues within section Amboinenses.
The base color is whitish and ornamented with narrow,
transverse bars that break into irregularly shaped dashes or
spots that often coalesce into somewhat illegible inscriptions toward the apical portions of the sepals and the petals. The bars are often purple-pink on the basal interiors
of the segments, and darken to (reddish-) magenta along
the sides and into the apices. The labellum is purple-pink
with or without whitish margins, while the sidelobes are
a paler color but are a conspicuous yellow at their front.
Two named varieties, var. delicata and var. ochracea, both
have base colors ranging from pale yellowish to white with
transverse bars that are ochre to cinnamon-colored, and
their respective labella are said to be amethystpurple. The main distinguishing charac4
1. Close-up of labellum of Phalaenopsis
5
6
lueddemaniana. Note the presence of
two bifid appendages.
2. Phalaenopsis hieroglyphica with magentacolored markings. Photo: Jim Cootes
3. A specimen of P. hieroglyphica with constricted
midlobe apex.
4. P. hieroglyphica with magenta and dark
cinnamon-colored markings.
5. P. hieroglyphica with broad sepals and petals.
6. A different plant of P. hieroglyphica also
displaying a constricted midlobe apex.