How to differentiate these 2 species?

[felihaha]

Hi everyone,

I need help on how to differentiate species of Phalaenopsis amabilis and Phalaenopsis aphrodite? Is there any website that provide a clear comparison between both species and is there any relationship between both?

Thanks!

[fred]

I have found three links that may help you

http://www.karls-orchids.net/species.htm

http://www.phals.net/Species.html

http://www.robert-bedard.com/orchids...l_species.html

[kmarch]

There are essentially 2 things that distinguish Phal amabilis from Phal aphrodite:

1) Geography - P amabilis is found from Sumatra and Java to the southern Philippines to New Guinea and Queensland, Australia. P aphrodite is from the northern Philippines and Taiwan.

2) Callus structure - A callus is a thickened, raised structure/area, in this case in the lip of the flower, in the centre of the lip where the mid-lobe and side-lobes converge. P. amabilis has a callus structure, somewhat chevron-shaped with 2 points or "teeth". The callus structure of P. aphrodite has a slightly more complex callus structure with 4 "teeth".

There are other subtle differences, for example P amabilis flowers can be up to 10cm across while P aphrodite flowers are smaller, up to 8 cm across. Flower size alone can not be relied upon to distinguish between the two as both vary quite a bit in size, overlap in their size range, and can display flowers of the same size.

Check out Eric Christenson's monograph on Phals titled Phalaenopsis: A Monograph. The info I've provided here is from this book.

I should also like to add a note about identifying orchids, especially ones with so many similarities, like these, from web photos. Pictures, while nice to look at and while helpful to some extent, should not be relied upon for the pourposes of identifying and orchid. It is really necessary that one reference a botanical description. In the case of amabilis vs aphrodite they are so similar in their superficial appearance, that trying to distinguish between them using photos of whole flowers is terribly confusing. I, myself, would look at the dozens of amabilis and aphrodite pics and leave horribly confused. the major distinguishing feature, the callus, is essentially invisible in every single web photo I've looked at. Photos are of course nice to look and do have their place in learnign about orchids, but should not be relied upon when the subtleties of species identification are at hand.

[Anton]

"GROGRAPHY ????? Kevin ? Hmmm, what you been on ? Hey ?

[BillC]

Anton, I think Kevin has deliberately coined a new word. 'Gro' as in grow, and the suffix 'graphy' from the Greek -graphia , writing or representation produced in a specified manner or by a specified process. Thus we have 'grography', the area in which a specific type of plant has its origin.

I think this new word should the subject of discussion by lexicographers for its inclusion into the major dictionaries.

Bill

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Anton

"GROGRAPHY ????? Kevin ? Hmmm, what you been on ? Hey ?

I don't know what it was but it didn't serve my purposes did it?