Are orange Cattleyas uncommon?

[plantluvver]

Oops, I meant to ask, "Are frahrant orange Cattleyas uncommon?

Came home from an orchid show today with 8 new treasures. I have not grown Cattleya relatives before, but now have six.

Three are seedlings. I was sniffing all of the nearby pots to find fragrant flowers, then asked the vendor if he had any idea which ones were likely to be fragrant. He asked someone else who said not the orange ones. But I had already found a fragrant orange plant.

The tag reads Blc. Carolina Orange D'or 'Lenette' AM/AOS x Pot. Love Passion 'Island Romance'. It definitely has a fragrance, the typical Cattleya

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There are a lot of orange Cattleyas. They mostly trace their ancestry to Sophronitis coccinea, which is not fragrant.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Orange is common. I have a Potinara Elizabeth Palmer 'Sun Bulb' which has a strong fragrance, like roses.

[Selmo]

The one parent Pot. Love Passion ‘Island Romance’ is fragrant. Maybe that is where the fragrance comes from. I don’t know about the other parent. Orange cattleyas aren’t any less fragrant or any more fragrant than any other color cattleyas. I don’t think you can say that one color of cattleya is always fragrant or another color is never fragrant. With hybridization any color can be fragrant.

[plantluvver]

Then perhaps this isn't the rare treasure I thought it might be.

First, the vendor was trying to discourage me from looking for fragrance by saying fragrance was a recessive trait. But I am sure fragrance is much more complicated than that! Surely there must be multiple genes involved! (I asked his help, because I did not want to dig through his entire display unnecessarily.)


I did learn from him that all orchid genera ending "-ara" involve at least 4 genera. So there at likely
at least seven different ancestors in this cross. (Although it is possible the same species might appear in both lines)
I imagine that with such complex parentage, odd things might happen. Though I really am just guessing here.

[JScott]

Aliceara and Vuylstekeara each have three genera in their background (Vuylstekeara is now obsolete, as Odontoglossum and Cochlioda are now Oncidium, but that's beside the point). Aliceara is Miltonia, Oncidium, and Brassia, so I don't think he was even quite right to say that all genera that end in -ara have four genera in their background.

I think maybe in the Cattleya alliance, all the ones that end in -ara have at least four genera, so maybe that's what he meant.

[plantluvver]

Thank you for the clarification. The table we were looking at were all part of the Cattleya Alliance, so that is likely what he meant.

[Leafmite]

What vendor was it? I am always interested in vendors that sell Cattleyas.

Good luck with your new orchids.

There are many orange, fragrant Cattleyas. I have a seedling of Lc. Aussie Sunset 'Cosmic Fire' that should fit the bill one day.

[plantluvver]

Fred Clarke's Sunset Valley Orchids, Inc.
Sunset Valley Orchids - Superior Hybrids for Orchid Enthusiasts

From what I could tell, his Cattleyas seem to be mostly seedlings from his own crosses. He sells others, too.

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Fred specializes in breeding Catts in the red/yellow/orange range, as well as blue Catts, spotted Catts, species Catts and smaller plants.