Is there such a thing as Rhyncholaelia digbyana alba?

[smweaver]

I've seen this species listed for sale as an alba-flowered form, but the pictures don't look different than the standard green-flowered form. Does anyone know if a true dibyana alba exists, or this is just an agreed-upon color in the same sense that coerulea-flowered cattleyas are "blue?"

[RJSquirrel]

still looks green to me.

Rhyncholaelia digbyana alba Mrs ChaseAM/AOS(selfing)

[Ray]

Some have a bit of pink or rose color in the sepals, so I suppose that one without that could be considered an alba…

[Jeff214]

I guess it would be important if you're breeding orchids. Even if the parent produces a red pigment faintly (as it's the case with ryncholaelias and some brassavolas), that may be passed on to its progeny.

I thought I read somewhere that they had trouble breeding albas with digbyana until they found some strain that bred albas well. I guess it is hard to tell looking at the plant if it's capable of producing red pigment somewhere.

[estación seca]

Look closely at the vegetative parts - my typical plants all have substantial reddish pigment. Do the albas?

[Jeff214]

It's hard to tell on some of the so-called-albas. I have a cattleya that was awarded as an alba - the plant has no visible red pigment on its vegetative parts (similar to my other albas), it flowers white, but you can see a very faint pink tinge after a few days. It actually turned pink after I moved it to a sunny spot. I think now they are saying that it's a mericlone mutation. Who knows.

I think the alaorii used in the warneri cross from SVO is also an "alba" with a pink tinge... maybe others can't tell the faint coloration? I dunno...

My point was that it can be hard to tell on some plants. And unless you're breeding orchids... probably not a huge difference! My digbyana makes very red growths.

[isurus79]

Digbyana imparts a lot of red pigment to it's progeny. You can see the pigment most clearly in the leaves and the back of flowers.

[smweaver]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. No, I would not be breeding the plant. It's just that the so-called alba variety is priced significantly more than the standard green-colored variety. So, if there's no noticeable differences in the alba versus the standard flower color for this species, there's probably not much value in acquiring a plant just to have one in my collection. Since I'm color-blind, I don't always see certain colors all that well, and I just couldn't tell the difference between the two flower colors.