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Sunday, March 30, 2008

In Bloom: Restrepia sanguinea 'Bloody Hopeful'

This is a young Restrepia sanguinea that I have decided to call "Bloody Hopeful" for two reasons.

First, both words are definitions for sanguine along with it indicating red color.

Second, this flower is absolutely huge for a restrepia with a ventral sepal of 3.5cm and a total natural vertical spread of 6cm (keeping in mind that it is not flat, so its bigger than that suggests). It is the largest restrepia flower I've ever seen. According to ISOPE, typical size for the flower is 3cm! So I'm hopeful that if I can take it to judging I might get a flower quality award. I hope it holds out until next Saturday!

Part of me worries if this is a fluke though. It only has one flower on it right now. It has bloomed before but I don't remember if it was this large. Could I have possibly missed it? Of course, its possible that my culture has been marginally better lately. Lets hope its that.

3 comments:

Nick said...

very beautifoul flowers!!

Anonymous said...

This is a dark variety of Restrepia guttulata. Restrepia sanguinea is cymbiform.

Anonymous said...

I agree - this looks like R. guttulata. Every R. sanguinea I've seen is boat-shaped. See:

http://www.orchidphotos.org/images/orchids/speciesV2/Restrepia/restrepiasanguinea2_81.html