Fragrant Catasetinae - Page 2 - Orchid Board

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #11 07-26-2015, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brsucculents

Clowesia amazonica [Note: gender of a species must agree with the gender of the genus.] was recently described so I guess it's not readily available in the trade. I saw that Bela Vista offered this species in Redlands several years ago. It looks very similar to warczewitzii.

I thought the same thing too. Apparently there are some differences. Maybe the differences are genetic. Maybe they're morphological, idk.

In any case, this species is somewhat newly described and is very hard to get a hold of.

All Clowesia are a pain to find. I got very lucky with finding my Clowesia rosea. Maybe they'll be available again through an international vendor or something, idk.

brsucculents · #12 07-26-2015, 01:15 PM

Just curious, from which international vendor did you get your rosea?

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #13 07-26-2015, 02:18 PM

I bought mine locally from Sunset Valley Orchids. I don't know if he still has any. When I bought mine, he was in the process of letting them go and only keeping a few. That was about 2 yrs ago.

As was mentioned, Clowesia are very difficult to find for some reason.

Cycnoches and Catasetum are easier to find. Mormodes is hard to find too, but not nearly as difficult as Clowesia is.

Generally speaking most species of Catasetinae are difficult to find. Some species are more commonly grown than others, but all-in-all it is not a walk in the park to find them again should you wipe out the ones you have.

If you want them around take matters into your own hands and breed them. Don't depend on others. Other people may not be interested in the same kinds of plants as you are interested in. Many people are also not interested in breeding species, but are more interested in hybridization, so be aware of this. Either sow the seeds yourself if you are able to do it, or find a lab to do it for you. If you're looking for labs, ask them what their specialty is, and ask them if they've worked with Catasetinae before. Most labs have most likely worked with Catasetinae to some degree or another.

Once you get seedlings, the next challenge is to grow them up into adults. Seedlings of Catasetinae do not look like miniature counterparts of their adult brethren. They look like tiny vines. After maybe about a couple of years will they start looking like miniature adult versions of the species.

I am actually looking into finding another Clowesia rosea or several other individuals to breed with mine because of the problem of them going out in numbers in the hobby. It'd be a shame if Clowesia rosea were to never be seen in the hobby within our lifetime or ever again.