The pairing of diverse parents can often lead to surprises; while occasionally the hybridizer comes to regret the choice of parent plants, more often there will be intriguing progeny, which, in turn, can offer the person wielding the toothpick fresh inspiration for their next unique cross. Such is the case with the flower pictured above. Paph. Mandarin Dragon is (Oriental Mystique x philippinense), and resulted in a lovely green and white 'Maudiae' type flower, with wide, drooping petals and several flowers per inflorescence; when this was crossed with Paph. fairrieanum fma album 'Hagee' FCC/AOS, an unexpectedly pleasant grex was created. The flowers are still basically green and white, but ruffling from the species parent has been added to the petals while petal width has been maintained. Most plants from this grex have had 2 flowers. Most plants have decided they would be green and white---essentially alba forms, but this particular plant seemed to have trouble making up its mind and mixed a little pink (anthocyanin pigment) into the background, and then as an extra twist split the pouch into 2 different colors!
.
