Paphiopedilum herrmanii

Toward the end of the 20 th century ,suddenly there was no end of newly discovered species of Venus's shoes -thanks to an improvement in the relations with the communist regimes in south western Asia. Western botanists have been allowered to move freely around Vietnam and China and they keep discovering and describing new species . However ,their taxonomy is certainly far from flawless -many variable plants are interpreted differently by different authors and there have been disputes over who was the first to describe them ,whether they are pedigree Venus's shoes or mere varieties of other species ,etc . One of the many recently discovered small species is P. herrmanii that was not discribed until 1995 . Its narrow ,belt -shaped leaves lack marbling and are about 6 in/15 cm long ;the flowers grow on a rather short spike . Their upper sepal is red with a yellow edge and their petals bear a similar coloring . The showy pink lip resembles that of a closely related p. henryanum (a species that P. herrmanii is sometimes mistaken for) . Grow it in a sandy mix enriched with limestone grit . The flowers appear between late winter and spring . The plant comes from northern Vietnam .