Steem Plants Contest Week 14 - A Strange Beauty

Hello everyone. We welcome the return of our gracious host @knopka145 in this Steem Plants Contest Week 14. Let me invite you to join in this wonderful challenge the mechanics of which you can read here. Hope to see you participating here soon.

For this week I would like to feature another plant which I saw in the plant and flower market here in our city. This is also where I saw the Hoya plants I featured many weeks ago. This plant is an orchid but it's bloom is quite different from a normal orchid flower.

I got interested in this oddly shaped orchids as people are normally attracted to strange things. I looked it up in the internet and this is what I discovered.

Paphiopedilum ciliolare is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is known commonly as the short haired paphiopedilum. It is endemic to the Philippines. This is a rare orchid with a total wild population of fewer than 2500 mature individuals. It is also commonly known as lady's slipper orchids or simply slipper orchids. Wikipedia

Although the statement that it is rare has been debunked and considered a myth. It is not rare anymore as they are now propagated by plants and ornamental growers such as this plant store or practically anyone. The orchids are sold in varying stages of growth or maturity. Here you can buy the matured plant, which would be really expensive at $50 a pot. See photo below.

Or you can buy a seedling with the buds just beginning to grow for $25 a pot. See below.

Or just buy the seedling and wait for it to bud and bloom which will take more time but a lot cheaper at $5 a pot.

They are characterised by the slipper-shaped pouches (modified labella) or lips of the flowers hence the name. It isn't as showy as her other orchid relatives but it does have its own innate beauty that grows on you. More like moldy cheese or dry wine of which preference is an acquired taste.

Would you like to have this plant in your garden?

And that's it for this week in the Steem Plants Competition. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for dropping by. My super thanks to our supporters and benefactors who make this Contest a successful one @steemcurator01, @steemcurator02, @steemitblog, @booming01 and @booming04. You guys rock!!

(All photos are mine.)