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The following article was written
for the Orchid Species Bulletin published by the Orchid
Species Society, which is based in Brisbane,
Queensland in April 1997.
Paph.
tonsum is quite a variable species both in the plant as well as in
the flower size, petal shape and spotting, and also the shape of the staminode.
It has oblong-elliptic leaves that I find Paph. tonsum to be easy to grow in the Brisbane area as it does not seem to mind our winter conditions without artificial heat. Lance Birk (1983) says that this species requires a winter rest to bloom. He indicates that it flowers in spring whereas Catherine Cash (1991) says that it flowers in winter. It seems to me that various cultivars can be found flowering from autumn through to spring.
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Paphiopedilum
tonsum (Rchb.f.) Stein was first
described by Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach as Cypripedium tonsum in the Gardeners'
Chronicle in 1883. He based his description on a plant collected by Charles
Curtis and sent back to Veitch & Sons of Chelsea. The specific epithet tonsum
means shaven or shorn and refers to the lack of hairs on the petals. Berthold Stein
transferred it to Paphiopedilum in Orchideenbuch in 1892. Paph.
tonsum is found frequently in north and central Sumatra where it grows in
deep humus in lower montane forests between 1000-1,800 m elevation.
are up to 20 cm long and 5 cm across, which are pale to
dark green, mottled with darker green. Many plants of this species are spotted or
flushed with purple beneath the leaves. The inflorescence is up to 38 cm tall and bears a
single glossy flower that is up to 12-14 cm across in autumn. The flower has a pinkish white
dorsal sepal veined green and dark purple. The outstretched petals are olive to
pale yellow-green with darker green veins and may sometimes be flushed dull
purple, with a few black warts in the inner surface. The lip is green to
olive-brown with pink flushing and has darker brown or maroon veining.