Encyclia alata???

[gixrj18]

This is another species Encyclia that I picked up last year in an eighty plant collection that I bought. It had a lot of unidentified Encyclias, but they are all species. I am pretty sure this one is alata....what do you guys think? Whatever it is, it is extremely fragrant!

[Zoi2]

I can't help with the ID, but it sure is pretty.
Joann

[dgenovese1]

Hi Jasen,
It looks like alata to me, although I'm not an expert on Encyclias...it is very similar to mine.

It's beautiful by the way!

[cb977]

I think it's alata also.
Mine should be blooming in the next week or so

Beautiful chid, Jasen!

[JonnyBravo]

i'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that while it reeeeallly looks like alata and probably is, it may not be. there are a lot of Encyclias with similar color, size, and shape. attached is a pic of my alata (confirmed), and you will see that it looks a good bit different than your sort-of-NOID'ed flower here. to back me up, check out santa barbara's E. guatemalensis- it's about as similar to your flower as mine is (sborchid.com). you would need the help of a very experienced taxonomist to sort out some of the tiny differences in Encyclia species... but i bet you could get away with calling it alata even if it weren't.

in any case, whatever it is, that's a hot one. very showy. again, your Encyclias make me way jealous.

[gixrj18]

I agree with you. However, guatamalensis supposedly has a slightly warty (or bumpy) pedicel (or stalk)....this one is pretty smooth. I also read that alata's lip shape and color has a lot of variations. It definitely has a honey-sweet smell like alata, it's smelling up my whole living room....I know this isn't a determining factor, because most Encyclias smell good. So, while it could be a number of things, my evidence is still pointing towards alata. Thanks for the input, though.