Laelia purpurata var. virginalis 'Campeã'

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by Cookiemonster

I love this one, heavenly..
Thank you for sharing. I had a quick question and I know this might seem ridiculous, but I dont know, I've seen L.Purpurata var alba with yellow in the throat and others without, any reason for why this happens?! I know alba =white, Virginalis=pure ? ...
Anyways, thanks again Mauro

This is not ridiculous, Suzie. Actually, these are good questions! Laelia purpurata varieties are a little more complicated than other species. For some reason that nobody can understand, describing the flower you see below Veitch named it variety alba.

Of course it is not an albino, white flower in the common sense, but he did name it 'alba' anyway, and the white, albino flower of L. purpurata, remained not described until Lou Menezes describe it years ago. When she was describing it, she could not give the name alba anymore, already taken by Veitch and its colored 'alba', and so she chose the name 'virginalis'. So, the white flowers of L. purpurata should be named L. purpurata var. virginalis, not alba.
When the yellow is not present in the throat of the white purpurata flowers people use to call it 'alba plena' (something like 'completely white'), or virginalis plena to be correct.

[Jerry Delaney]

Originally Posted by Rosim_in_BR

This is not ridiculous, Suzie. Actually, these are good questions! Laelia purpurata varieties are a little more complicated than other species. For some reason that nobody can understand, describing the flower you see below Veitch named it variety alba.

Of course it is not an albino, white flower in the common sense, but he did name it 'alba' anyway, and the white, albino flower of L. purpurata, remained not described until Lou Menezes describe it years ago. When she was describing it, she could not give the name alba anymore, already taken by Veitch and its colored 'alba', and so she chose the name 'virginalis'. So, the white flowers of L. purpurata should be named L. purpurata var. virginalis, not alba.
When the yellow is not present in the throat of the white purpurata flowers people use to call it 'alba plena' (something like 'completely white'), or virginalis plena to be correct.

Really fantastic pictures Mauro! Your culture for these plants is absolutely superb! However, I am confused. As you say, the taxonomy of this species is "complicated" (to me, just plain confusing).
Regardless of what name was given, why isn't this variety a 'delicata' or with the minimum amount of veining perhaps a 'russeliana'?
Regardless of what technical name is given, just plain 'beautiful' is appropriate!

[Rosim_in_BR]

Thank you all guys for the kind words you always have to me!

Originally Posted by Jerry Delaney

Really fantastic pictures Mauro! Your culture for these plants is absolutely superb! However, I am confused. As you say, the taxonomy of this species is "complicated" (to me, just plain confusing).
Regardless of what name was given, why isn't this variety a 'delicata' or with the minimum amount of veining perhaps a 'russeliana'?
Regardless of what technical name is given, just plain 'beautiful' is appropriate!

yup, confusing is the word, Jerry. It happened that the average collectors didn't know that Veitch had named the above light colored flower 'alba'. So, when collectors found an albino they start calling it alba, not knowing that technically they could not do it. So, as a mistake never comes alone, when they saw the above flower they called it delicata, again not knowing that it should be called alba. Well, you sleep with this noise! Technically, it is not recommended to call the above plant var. delicata, although it is common seeing it labeled this way. It should most properly be labeled var. alba 'delicata'. There's another famous of the same color named 'Graciana', that should be labeled var. alba 'Graciana'. They crossed the two and started callingn the progeny 'Graciata', when the correct should be var. alba 'Graciata' (my plant above is 'Graciata').
Krackowizer in his Monograph of Laelia purpurata describes a variety called 'delicata' that has the lip like the above, but the petals and sepals are cream, not pure white. Never saw something like this!

[gixrj18]

Originally Posted by Rosim_in_BR

Thank you all guys for the kind words you always have to me!


yup, confusing is the word, Jerry. It happened that the average collectors didn't know that Veitch had named the above light colored flower 'alba'. So, when collectors found an albino they start calling it alba, not knowing that technically they could not do it. So, as a mistake never comes alone, when they saw the above flower they called it delicata, again not knowing that it should be called alba. Well, you sleep with this noise! Technically, it is not recommended to call the above plant var. delicata, although it is common seeing it labeled this way. It should most properly be labeled var. alba 'delicata'. There's another famous of the same color named 'Graciana', that should be labeled var. alba 'Graciana'. They crossed the two and started callingn the progeny 'Graciata', when the correct should be var. alba 'Graciata' (my plant above is 'Graciata').
Krackowizer in his Monograph of Laelia purpurata describes a variety called 'delicata' that has the lip like the above, but the petals and sepals are cream, not pure white. Never saw something like this!

So in the average orchid world, what differentiates an alba from an albina. If I had a white one pop up from a bunch of siblings, how would I know which one to register it as? Thanks, Mauro!

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by gixrj18

So in the average orchid world, what differentiates an alba from an albina. If I had a white one pop up from a bunch of siblings, how would I know which one to register it as? Thanks, Mauro!

If it was not for Veitch having used the word 'alba' to designate a colored flower, everything would be all right and we would have the word alba (white) matching the concept of albino (lacking pigmentation, or white).
So, what differentiates an alba from an albino is that (only in the L. purpurata case) the alba has some color on the lip and is not an albino and the true albino, the all white flower with only a little yellow in the throat, must be called var. virginalis.
So, if you pick a white L. purpurata up from a bunch of seedlings you should label it Laelia purpurata var. virginalis (assuming that you want to be technically correct).

[gixrj18]

Originally Posted by Rosim_in_BR

If it was not for Veitch having used the word 'alba' to designate a colored flower, everything would be all right and we would have the word alba (white) matching the concept of albino (lacking pigmentation, or white).
So, what differentiates an alba from an albino is that (only in the L. purpurata case) the alba has some color on the lip and is not an albino and the true albino, the all white flower with only a little yellow in the throat, must be called var. virginalis.
So, if you pick a white L. purpurata up from a bunch of seedlings you should label it Laelia purpurata var. virginalis (assuming that you want to be technically correct).

What if it's not purpurata? All white is alba, and all white w/ yellow throat is albino? Does this only apply to species, or do these rules apply for hybrids also?

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by gixrj18

What if it's not purpurata? All white is alba, and all white w/ yellow throat is albino? Does this only apply to species, or do these rules apply for hybrids also?

If it is not purpurata, all white flowers, with yellow or not in the throat are 'alba' (alba is a particular case of albinism (albino) which is the general case for the flowers lacking pigmentation). For example, the brown Cattleya leopoldii when appears without the regular pigmentation has the petals and sepals green and only the lip white. It is in the general case of albinism and should more properly be called var. albina, not alba. Take another example, in Sophronitis coccinea when the red pigmentation is absent the flower becomes yellow. It is an albino, not an alba.
Alba should only be applied to the all white flowers (the yellow in the throat is normal in white flowers).
The same with the hybrids. White flowers (with or without yellow in the throat) are always var. alba.

[Jerry Delaney]

Originally Posted by Rosim_in_BR

If it was not for Veitch having used the word 'alba' to designate a colored flower, everything would be all right and we would have the word alba (white) matching the concept of albino (lacking pigmentation, or white).

Thanks Mauro for the explanations. I knew that "precedence" applied to genus and species but did not realize that it went all the way down to variety. Now, for the real tough question. If they can take this beautiful species and suddenly decide that it is no longer a Laelia but a Sophronitis, why can they not straighten out some of the other naming problems with this plant. After all, I think that most of the rational for changing the name was due to the fact that purpurata may be genetically closer to Sophronitis than Laelia. However, that does not make it a Sophronitis. Golly, man and some of the great apes share most of their DNA. That doesn't mean that humans are apes or vice versa. Nor does it mean that either are descendants of the other. If either were true, man, what an insult to the apes!!