Grammatophyllum multiflorum cv. citrinum

During the 70’s and 80’s all Grammatophyllums from Bicol Region were called Grammatophyllum scriptums. The Orchidiana Philippiniana did not give its taxonomic opinion and automatically named it Grammatophyllum scriptum when they described cv. Citrinum. Currently, all Grammatophyllums originating from the Bicol region are placed under Grammatophyllum multiflorum.

The first Grammatophyllum multiflorum cv. citrinum was sold by a Bicolano plant trader in the Baclaran Plant Market April 1982. The plant was collected from Bicol by the trader.

The first plant of Grammatophyllum multiflorum cv. citrinum was bought by Joe Romans for P1,500 (a big sum of money at the time) and was brought to Florida. The plant was exhibited later and won awards under the name Grammatophyllum scriptum “Roman Holiday” (AOS Bulletin). The plant had since been propagated from seeds multiple times and reached Thailand during the late 90’s.

The Filipino orchidists started buying the seedlings and clones from Thailand during the late 90’s. The cloned materials that are milled out of Thailand exhibits crippled inflorescence tip due to “overcloning”(as explained by the Thai supplier). The seedling plants from US are exact copy of the mother (without crippled or fasciated tip).

The plant remains one of the prettiest orchids from the Philippines because of its clean chartreuse-colored flowers. This is one orchid plant that we Filipinos should be proud of. Efforts are now being done by local breeders to increase and to reduce the size of the plants and flowers and should be available in a decade.