Paphiopedilum urbanianum, endemic to the the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, has been in cultivation for approximately 25 years. It was named by Jack Fowlie in honor of Jacinta Urban of the Philippines.
This brief essay could easily be written about how Paph urbanianum has distinctly and brightly colored flower parts that serve to direct potential pollinators to fall prey to its' deception and fall into the trap of the pouch, but there is an interesting deviation from this contrivance visible on the flower pictured above. Look closely and you'll notice that at some point in the development of the bud, the staminode became distorted so that an insect could escape the clutches of the pouch without carrying off that bulky load of pollen visible just to the right of the staminodal shield. Would this deviation from the norm cause the eventual extinction of the species? Not likely, as the distortion is probably due to some form of mechanical damage, rather than genetic mutation, and the flower will be anatomically correct next season. It is not uncommon for flowers to show minute or gross distortion from the norm due to mechanical damage, shortage of water or damaging insect predation during bud formation, or being crowded by the adjacent plant so that the bud has no room to expand. Look closely and sometimes you will find these curious malformations, appearing once only, never to be seen again. If indeed the malformation were genetic its lowered reproductive potential would "weed" the genes out over several generations, unless they conferred some offsetting advantage not obvious to us.
