paphiopedilum gratrixianum

P. gratrixianum is an undemanding Venus's shoe of average beauty ,attractive for cultivators for its fairly large flowers and very low cultivation requirements . Each flower reaches a length of upto 4 in /10 cm and grows singly out of a rosette of pure green leaves reaching lengths of 10 in /25 cm . The flowers resemble those of P . insigne in color,but their upper sepal is sparsely covered with noticeably bigger brown -and -red spots. The plant can be successfully grown even in a mixture of wood shavings and river (white )sand;it thrives on windowsils. The flowers usually appear between October and december . The species come from Laos,northern Vietnam and Thailand .