Phaius australis blooms for the first time

Over the last two days I have witnessed the first two flowers opening on my Phaius australis which was purchased as a clone seedling in September last year from Kuranda Envirocare inc. to assist with the conservation of this species. The plant has a specific tag number that is a requirement of the local government for traceability and to demonstrate that it was sourced through legal means. It is an endangered species found from northern Queensland through to northern New South Wales. This and other related orchids can be cloned relatively easily by cutting the flower stem after blooming and potting up the pieces of stem, which contain a single viable node. It is that node that generates a new plant identical to the parent plant.

There remains some debate whether this is a valid species, or if it is simply P. tankervilleae or a variant of the latter. I have been doing some reading on the subject and also getting some interesting opinions from various growers too. Some people consider some slight differences in the way the lip covers all, part or none of the column as diagnostic. However, a recent molecular study done on populations of P. australis in Australia made no mention of any overlap in the sequences generated from P. australis and those available for P. tankervilleae from southeast Asia. This paper did mention explicitly that the distribution of P. tankervilleae extends as far as Papua New Guinea (PNG) and that there was likely continuity in ancestral plants during the last period when a land bridge existed between PNG and Australia and possibly other locations north of PNG too (last Ice Age). This would suggest that if it is a separate species, that it may be a recent divergence from P. tankervilleae. Regardless however, this species is very special and in need of careful conservation in its remaining populations and habitat.

I have attached two photos here below: one of my plant from September last year when I purchased it, and a photo from todays date, about 11 months later after the plant matured into a large specimen producing its first spike of about 1.2 m tall. One thing I can say about this species is that it grows extremely quickly!

Phaius australis plant on 22 September 2019

First flowering on 4 August 2020