Catasetum planiceps

[catasetum-ian]

catasetum planiceps, spiek is upright and most commonly mistaken for a female spike of other catasetums to one that is not familiar with catasetums. another catasetum that is commonly mistaken for a planiceps is its natural hybrid, Catasetum xwendlingeri (pileatumxplaniceps)
in the third pic, you can see the anternna of the this catasetum, indicating a male flower. this is a large catasetum with a very long erected spike. mine is 52.1cm and i believe mine is only a teenager planiceps.

[euplusia]

Great looking plant.

[WhiteRabbit]

Cool!

[Bud]

Beautiful color and form. Its a towering orchid plant. The leaves and canes are healthy robust and very clean. I find it hard to maintain the leaves as pristine as yours, mine would discolor and dry up as soon as the flowers open....

[catasetum-ian]

Originally Posted by Bud

Beautiful color and form. Its a towering orchid plant. The leaves and canes are healthy robust and very clean. I find it hard to maintain the leaves as pristine as yours, mine would discolor and dry up as soon as the flowers open....

thanks. just wanna ask, are you comparing a planiceps to a planiceps here? i am asking this because some catasetum species tends to flower when the pb is relatively immature, for eg the tenebrosum , callosum and here the planiceps.
for other species, they flower during late pb maturity and sometime during dormant period. therefore if you are comparing a different species that flowers at late pb maturity, it is OK for them to look like that. (as long as you have a thick fleshy PB that do not shrivel despite the media is wet and did not experience any lost of flower buds before they bloom.)

[Bud]

Right, some of my Catasetinae plants are ready for dormancy when they bloom and the leaves have started to wither yet some in my collection have great looking leaves while in bloom.

[isurus79]

Good looking planiceps!

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Very interesting, love the bloom!

[AvantGardner]

That is interesting! Do the female flowers look similar? I wonder why this species evolved to have similar male and female flowers?

[catasetum-ian]

Originally Posted by AvantGardner

That is interesting! Do the female flowers look similar? I wonder why this species evolved to have similar male and female flowers?

i have yet to earn myself a female planiceps, but i seen the pic of it on the internet, the hood is similar in shape, but the sepals are open up and not tightly clasped against the hood structure. and when in doubt, just look for the trigger pollina which is always present in male.
had no idea about the evolution part on why but the variation of male flower from this genus are vast in diversity