A garden's chronicle: Paphiopedilum appletonianum field report in Cambodia by Robert Dromgoole.

Today for the first time since the blog early days in 2010, I will not be the author of the next blog article. I have invited a Cambodian resident, Robert Dromgoole, to write a field report on a wonderful slipper orchid he observed on several occasions in Cambodia (exact locations withheld for conservation purpose). I am honored to host Bob field notes and beautiful photographs here and I would like to thank him for adding such a beautiful piece to those 'Garden's Chronicles'.

Bob described himself to me with the following words:

'I am not a trained scientist nor an academic. I have however, had a keen relationship with the natural world since I was very young. I say this just to inform you of where my observations come from. I am new to the tropics. Northern USA is where I cut my teeth, and sub-tropical Hawaii (25 years there) has a very limited diversity [...]. I have mountains of learning to do! This is my first ever blog post. It may be a bit ‘dry’ but I got it done!'

It was not dry Bob. ;-) These slipper orchids field reports are not that common and I think many enthusiasts, horticulturists and botanists alike will be grateful, as I am now.

Let's begin:

'First, I must thank Francois for inviting me to share my excitement on his amazing and inspiring blog.

After reading a recent post about Paphiopedilum callosum in southern Cambodia, I immediately decided I had to see these beauties in living color, and quickly set about searching. After just three days I struck gold with this lovely patch of Paphiopedilum appletonianum (also known as P. wolterianum, now a synonym (Note by François)). And lucky me, some were in flower! The IUCN Red List places this species in the endangered category, with the outlook not so rosy.

The area containing plants that I have so far explored in southern Cambodia is perhaps 300m x 50m. The population is scattered throughout and seems healthy, yet the location is quite vulnerable to poaching and expanding development.

The mostly terrestrial growing plants live at a cool, cloudy, humid ‘highland’ elevation. The forest is somewhat stunted. The light is variable in the understory, from slightly to somewhat bright dappling, with the plants seeming to favor the darker half of that spectrum, though not the darkest.

The soil is a loose leafy humus of a few centimeters, with silica sand underlying. I also found several that were growing on leafy, moss covered rocks. I have so far seen eight very beautiful flowers, on stems 40-60 cm tall. They are somewhat variable in shape and coloring. The many old flower stalks make me think this is the last of the flowering for this season. There are many basal rosettes, with varying degrees of tessellation. The largest leaves I saw were just over 20cm long.