Bifolate Catt ?

[emg53]

I bought a blooming LC Blue Boy "Gainsborough" last fall. All the pbulbs have two leaves. I now have two new pbulbs forming with leaves about 8 inches tall. Now each pbulb has only one leaf. Does the second leaf grow later? I am fairly new to growing Catts and I have never had one bloom for me. I have a very mature BLC Mildred Hollingsworth that I bought blooming in Feb which has some pbulbs with one leaf and others with two leaves. I am really confused by these bifolate Catts.

[WhiteRabbit]

Many hybrids can have both bi and uni foliate growths

[tucker85]

Sonya is exactly right. Your orchid is not 100% bifoliate. Cattleyas with both bifoliates and unifoliates in their background can produce pseudo-bulbs with either one or two leaves. Generally one type will be dominant with an occasional pseudo-bulb that's the opposite.

[emg53]

So that means that the new p-bulbs will only have one? All three of the older p-bulbs have 2. I didn't know if they would grow a second leaf later.

[tucker85]

No, they don't grow a second leaf later, although the second leaf is folded inside the first leaf so it might not be visible until the first leaf opens up. If all the other p-bulbs have two leaves than I would expect that most of the new ones will have two leaves. It also depends on light. Bifoliate cattleyas require more light than unifoliates and I've noticed that some hybrids will form two leaves per p-bulb in bright light and one leaf in lower light conditions. By the way, they will sometimes have three leaves on a pseudo-bulb. Your orchid has four species in it's background, Guarianthe bowringiana (bifoliate), Cattleya gaskelliana (unifoliate), Cattleya tigrina (bifoliate) and Cattleya purpurata (unifoliate).

[emg53]

Thanks Tucker, the leaves are starting to open and one leaf is all I see. I have recently moved it an the area with the most light but without direct middle of the day sun. Thank you for telling me the lineage of my orchid.