Do C. mossiae buds form without a sheath?

[Jeff214]

Happy Turkey Day for those in the US!

I received a previously bloomed division of C. mossiae 'Willowbrook' earlier this spring. This week I noticed bud-like things forming without a sheath on the three new p-bulbs that developed this year. Looking at the older growths with old spikes, one had a sheath and the other three does not appear to have had a sheath. It could have been removed but it doesn't seem that way.

It's too early to say if buds are really forming... but I was curious if this was a trait of this particular strain (or maybe just this clone)? I know that there's debate this clone being a hybrid with lueddemanniana but both of those bloom normally with a sheath. I've never seen this division in bloom, so perhaps it's not what it says it is...

[SouthPark]

Jeff ..... nice one. Those reddish things definitely appear to be buds. So looks like it's a sheathless spiking here.

Also - people do report of some cattleya orchids ------ an individual plant ----- can produce sheaths before spikes, and also produce spikes without sheaths. Not all kinds of catts ..... but some of them do.

[Jeff214]

Thanks, I'll soon find out what these are!

[isurus79]

Yep, I've seen Cattleyas bloom without a sheath. My memory tells me the buds often don't do well without a sheath.

[Roberta]

I took a look at photos of various C mossiae plants that I have or have had, they all seem to have had sheaths (often hard to tell in the photos since that's not what I was taking a picture of) Will be interesting to see what the flowers look like... first thing I would think of is a possible hybrid with one of the hadrolaelias (which typically don't have sheaths), which would tend to also make flowers smaller and help keep the plant size down. You'll see when it blooms...

[terryros]

I think there is something unusual about mossiae’Willowbrook’. Mine has bloomed four times. It is currently a 9 growth plant with two different leads. Each lead again is without sheath but there are early buds, ready to grow. My previous blooms without sheaths have been fine. Many think that ‘Willowbrook’ may be an accidental (or not) hybrid with lueddimanniana, which would be Gravesiana. Maybe something in the hybrid changed blooming behavior. There are Cattleya species that bloom with sheaths, but this is not normal behavior for most of the standard unifoliates. I have just accepted that this is what the plant does.

[Clawhammer]

My Mossiae Willowbrook just budded without a sheath (first bloom). It didn't make it to flower, it became deformed

[SouthPark]

Also - according to this source here, but don't blame me about the accuracy etc ......

it says on page 180 of "The Amateur Orchid Cultivators' Guide Book" :

Link

[SouthPark]

It's nice that the other members here are confirming ..... or contributing towards confirming ------ mossiae can sometimes or even often produce sheathless spikes.

[isurus79]

Yep, Willowbrook is a known hybrid. It shouldn’t affect the sheath process though since both species use sheaths. Sometimes it just happens with Cattleyas though