Paphiopedilum gratrixianum (Mast.) Guillaumin 1924 Subgen Paphiopedilum Sec. Paphiopedilum Karasawa & Saito 1982 Photo by © Lourens Grobler

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Common Name Gratix's Paphiopedilum [English Orchid Enthusiast 1900's]

Flower Size 3 1/4" [8 cm]

Found in SE Laos and Northern Vietnam in primary wet, broadleafed, evergreen highland cloud forests at 900 to 1220 meters with no dry period and a lot of constant humidity in leaf litter caught in silicate soil pockets or on rhyolite or on granite cliff walls as a small sized, hot to cool growing, clump forming, litho-terrestrial in deep shade with distichous, solid green, suberect, linear to lanceolate and oblong leaves with an acute or minutely tridentate apice that are purple spotted below towards the leaf base and blooms on a erect, to 10" [25 cm] long, single flowered, green with purple pubescence inflorescence with a narrowly oblong-lanceolate to obovate, acute to obtuse floral bract with a long-lasting flower that is fall and early winter blooming.

Synonyms Cordula gratrixiana [Masters[ Rolfe 1912; *Cypripedium gratrixianum Masters 1905; Paphiopedilum affine De Wildeman 1906; Paphiopedilum villosum var affine [De Wildeman] Braem 1988; Paphiopedilum villosum var gratixianum [Masters] Braem 1988;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Genus Paphiopedilum Vol 1 & 2 Braem 1999

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