Catasetum season at Roberta's house

[Roberta]

Along with some serious growing, I'm getting a bunch of early blooms. While it's the species that particularly grab my attention, I'll start with a hybrid, Ctsm. J and R Solar. This is Ctsm Dragon's Teeth x fimbriataum Depending on the choice of parents it be green, but this one was made with really dark versions of both parents. This one bloomed when it was barely ready for any water and the growth was small. I expect another bloom later in the season when it's mature.

And there are several more plants with big fat buds, so the show is just starting. These early bloomers tend to bloom again in a couple of months.

[Roberta]

Catasetum expansum

I have a few plants of this one. Biggest one bloomed female. Female flowers all look pretty much alike - little green helmets. I include a photo of the whole plant, with a yardstick (91 cm) for scale.. This is not a miniature. Another plant (from SVO) bloomed male, and the center of the flowers looks almost like ceramic. This one is intensely red. I include a photo for comparison of another cultivar (I think a division of the one that bloomed female) This photo is from a prior year, but the plant is in bud now so I'll be able to add this year's photos in a few weeks. This one is yellow and green - I'd consider it close to alba. I think it's fun to see the different color forms.

[Roberta]

Catasetum planiceps

This is an odd one. Last year I almost missed properly appreciating it. The flowers looked like the usual boring females. But then I looked more closely - and could see the triggers that are characteristic of male flowers. This year I got better photos of it. Again, the flowers on close inspection are male, but have the outer shape characteristic of the female flowers of the whole genus.

[Louis_W]

Wow they are all amazing but that expansum is downright impressive!

[Roberta]

Thanks! And it's still pretty early in the season. I have moved most of the Catasetinae outside... GH isn't big enough to contain them when they're in such active growth.

[Roberta]

Another one just opened... Ctsm. callosum 'SVO Black Lip' AM/AOS x self . I show the whole plant, you can see that it put out this spike while the new growth is still pretty small. (This is one of the later ones to develop, compared with beasts like the Ctsm expansums)

[smweaver]

The Catasetum expansum male blooms are brilliant. And yes, I agree that they do look like they're made out of some sort of ceramic or porcelain material. Quite attractive flowers.