Catlleya intermedia V coerulea (aquinii ? )

[sam1147]

[Roberta]

It's beautiful! I don't see the aquinii in there - usually those have prominent flares on the petals. But I also once had three plants from a selfing of v. aquinii - two had the peloric markings (and really bad form... one had floppy, badly reflexed petals and the other didn't open fully, petals held forward like a cone) and the third showed no sign at all of the peloric markings but had good form. I like yours!

[sam1147]

Originally Posted by Roberta

It's beautiful! I don't see the aquinii in there - usually those have prominent flares on the petals. But I also once had three plants from a selfing of v. aquinii - two had the peloric markings (and really bad form... one had floppy, badly reflexed petals and the other didn't open fully, petals held forward like a cone) and the third showed no sign at all of the peloric markings but had good form. I like yours!

Roberta thanks -I am not sure aquinii equals peloric. If you
will look closely you can see the weak cerulea veining on the sepals. I am not sure how they are being called.

[Roberta]

var. aquinii is the peloric form. var. aquinii coerulea looks something like this:
http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Catt...20coerulea.jpg

Here's the "typical" color in another C. intermedia var. aquinii
http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Catt...%20aquinii.jpg


The lip pattern is also in the petals. A downside is that often there is an extra-heavy mid-rib on the petals (again, trying to be a lip) that distorts the flowers while it provides the interesting pattern. My coerulea one actually doesn't have great form but was good enough for Sunset Valley Orchids to still give it a cultivar name... this color pattern that also has nice flat flowers is, I think, fairly uncommon.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised to see yours in bloom now... mine typically bloom in April or May.

[sam1147]

Actually I do have a sister peloric plant that blooms by mid March

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by sam1147

Actually I do have a sister peloric plant that blooms by mid March

Beautiful! That's one with really nice form!

That's a more typical bloom time. But it is very possible that the one without the peloric markings could have come from the same seed capsule... I certainly had that experience. There are all sorts of surprises in genetics.

[sam1147]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Beautiful! That's one with really nice form!

That's a more typical bloom time. But it is very possible that the one without the peloric markings could have come from the same seed capsule... I certainly had that experience. There are all sorts of surprises in genetics.

Right . I know that they are from the same capsule.

[Roberta]

My suspicion is that in the process of line-breeding, somewhere in the background there was a non-peloric plant, maybe introduced to correct the tendency of the peloric ones to have wonky form. (After all, any C. intermedias that are in cultivation have been bred and re-bred for generations, peloric forms being rare in nature also likely very inbred and introducing a standard form occasionally would help diversify the genetics, too.) Then, the statistics of genetics would let the non-peloric version pop out from time to time.

[SouthPark]

Wonderful pics Sam. Wonderful colour and shape variations - with very nice interesting subtle colours seen in some portions of the flower.