[OGD] Grammatophyllum muddles & size matters.

Oliver Sparrow queried me about my concept of G. scriptum:
"However, re G. measuresianum and scriptum, I do thing they are different:
in
flowering period, in how the stem is held, in the odd cleistogmatic flowers
that G. measuresianum tends to have at the base of a raceme; et al. If you
said that what is sold as G. scriptum, tigrinum and citrinum were the same
species I woudl however agree."

Oliver, the simple answer is yes, I lump G. multiflorum, G. tigrinum and G.
citrinum together under G. scriptum. I cannot see any consistent
morphological differences between them; they are just colour forms. I
haven't seen G. martae in the wild.

In the same OGD, Andy Easton continues to try to show that there may really
be a human being somewhere underneath that exterior ... he posted a mailing
about me which didn't contain a single insult. Andy, "the largest" depends
on how you measure size. There are several records of Grammatophyllum
speciosum specimens weighing-in at over one ton. Sobralia certainly gets
tall, but it is never massive in the same sense. If, however, you insist
that length is all that counts, then I suggest you dump some fertilizer on
your 34-foot specimen, because it really doesn't measure up.

I've got a photo of Arachnis celebica in the wild with a single stem more
than 16 metres long (for decimally-challenged readers, that is over 52
feet), and I gave up measuring the length of a Vanilla griffithii stem when
my tape measure ran out after 20 metres (65 feet).

Peter O'Byrne
in Singapore

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