Alright I confess… there is nothing beautiful about three-days-old really sweaty and stinky gym socks. But this lovely Mastiphyllum Louis Sander orchid happens to smell just like it – and it is beautiful! This time I was rewarded with two flowers at the same time so luckily the, ehm fragrance, is not so potent that it fills the room and ruins the experience all together. No, the stench stays pretty close to the flowers, so as long as you don’t inhale just as you walk by you will be alright.
Besides, the beauty of these flowers more than make up for any misgivings about the scent, and the buds are almost just as cool (check out the photos). The flowers are relatively large, 8 cm across and with 25 cm long and graceful petals. The color is pretty intense and the pattern looks a little bit like candy canes. Unfortunately the flowers don’t last very long, only about a week or so.
It was actually sold to me as a Bulbophyllum, and I see that most people are still referring to it as such. But confusion is pretty common with all the re-classifications of orchids that is going on. The better technology we get, the more complicated it becomes as we untangle the genetic heritage of the Orchidaceae family. A big job since it is the largest and most diverse family of flowering plants in the world. There are over 800 described genera and 25 000 species (some say closer to 30 000) and another 100 000+ hybrids and cultivars added to that! See, you learned something.
So what is a Mastiphyllum you ask? Well, is is a cross between a Bulbophyllum and a Mastigion. Mastiphyllum Louis Sander is a hybrid between Bulbophyllum longissimum x Mastigion ornatissimum. The original cross was recorded in 1936 by the famous orchid collector Sanders himself (hince the name), and it is the earliest recorded hybrid in the Bulbophyllum alliance. Although at the time, both longissimum and ornatissimum were classified as Cirrhopetalum… sooo Louis Sander was at one point a primary hybrid in the Cirrhopetalum genera, but alas… (Source: Bulbophyllums and Their Allies: A Grower’s Guide by Emly S. Siegeris)
