ASOPOMO Six

This small fellow is a favorite for many reasons. Charming. green and unusual. Rarely seen outside orchid collections. Paphiopedilum spicerianum is a species in the group of orchids known as slippers because of their pronounced labellum that looks like a pouch which is a further development of the exaggerated lower petal known as a "lip" on other orchids. The slippers consist of five genera. This is an example of a species from the one Asian genus. Three of the other genera are strictly new world. One genus is native to the Americas, Europe and Asia.

The slipper orchids are not carnivorous (one of the questions I am most often asked at my lectures.) But rather the pouch is the beginning of an elaborate labyrinth a curious insect must wonder through to escape. During the rite of passage the insect comes in contact with the pollen and the leaves the maze with bearing symbolic badge - a smear of pollen. When again duped by a second slipper flower, the insect traces the same course and emerges only after the pollen badge from the last flower has been passed on to the new flower. That dance solves at least one part of the puzzle of life.

ASOPOMO stands for A Series of Photographs of My Orchids