Phaius

This was given to me about 6 years ago by a guest lecturer who had some left over sales plants. It was small plant with a tag that said "Phaius unknown ex Madagascar". It is quite nice, long lasting flowers, upright spike. Does anyone have any thoughts on what it is?

 

Thanks, Matthias. I think you may be right about this being Phaius australis. That's an Australian native and this came from an Australian nursery. I'll do a bit more checking but it certainly matches the many images on google. It is still in flower and I'll take it apart. A very nice thing and now I have some cultural info as well.

As I understand it, there is only one species of Phaius from Madagascar and that is P. pulchellus. There are several varieties of it and this is not any of them. That is what had me puzzled. I know that the gastrorchis used to be phaius.

 

Here is an update on this plant. It isn't australis, that part is certain. I sent the images to David Banks who had given me the plant. Here is his response:

"This plant is a bit problematic for us, let me explain...
The seed was collected from a botanical gardens in Madagascar by Murray Shergold well over a decade ago. May even be 20 years. He actually had a plant awarded here (an AM) as the “Madagascan form of Phaius tankervilliae”. Problem is, I don’t believe that species is native to Madagascar, and that the plant at the gardens may have been imported from...???
The awarded plant was selfed, and yours was one of those seedlings. Out of interest, it is nothing like P. australis. But I would feel more comfortable knowing what its natural origin was."

To add to this, another friend asked him if the seedlings showed any variety and he said they were like "peas in a pod, all the same."

Now I see why a lazy google search yielded so many images of this as P australis.

 

I've asked if he knows which garden and will let you know what I hear. Yes, you can use the images or just link to this post if that's easier. The images can be seen without logging in.

 

I did get two knowledgeable people to agree that this is the Chinese form of Phaius tankervilleae, .