Female Buds...One Looks Different

[Junebug]

The last female bloom from my Catasetum pileatum 'Oro Verde' opened this morning and it looks curiously different from the others. This is my only Ctsm. and I consider myself a novice at growing them. Over the last two years this chid has taken turns blooming male and female, but I've never seen anything like this before. Would someone with experience explain these differences.Female Catasetum Blooms - a set on Flickr

[Daethen]

Could this last one be trying to be male? I don't grow these, so it's a total guess.

Makes me think of Sesame St. One of these things is not like the other.......

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by Daethen

Could this last one be trying to be male? I don't grow these, so it's a total guess.

Makes me think of Sesame St. One of these things is not like the other.......

That was my thought, but I'd never heard of that happening before. This time the buds looked distinctly male about half way through their development and then abruptly changed to female. I read that the norm is to have either male or female blooms and that it's rare to have 2 spikes with both genders blooming at once. This bloom looks like a combo to my novice eyes.

[Junebug]

Bump

[glengary54]

Junebug - Your flower is hermaphroditic (it has both male and female sex organs), in the last picture you can clearly see the dislodged anther cap with the pollen still inside. This is not as rare as one would think, for me it adds a little more interest to the normal female flower.

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by glengary54

Junebug - Your flower is hermaphroditic (it has both male and female sex organs), in the last picture you can clearly see the dislodged anther cap with the pollen still inside. This is not as rare as one would think, for me it adds a little more interest to the normal female flower.

Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate it.

[isurus79]

Yep, definitely hermaphroditic. Imagine being an orchid taxonomist back in the day with 3 different forms of flower for one species!!!

[Bud]

Glen, I am just amazed as to how advanced you are about orchids...It is always a new thing I learn whenever I read your notes.
This is a beautiful flower, June and endowed with both sexes at that!

[Junebug]

Thanks, Bud.

[glengary54]

Originally Posted by Bud

Glen, I am just amazed as to how advanced you are about orchids...It is always a new thing I learn whenever I read your notes.
This is a beautiful flower, June and endowed with both sexes at that!

Bud that is nice of you to say but we all have our areas of expertise, I'm sure that you know more about theatre lighting than I ever will. It's just a matter of interest and educating ourselves.