Enc. has name but I'm puzzled by the blooms

[Junebug]

This chid had a tag when I bought it about 18 months ago. I bought it without ever seeing it in bloom and it was labeled Epi. "Nursery Rhyme" x Epi. rufum. The Epi. part has been reclassified to Encylia.

Now here's the stumper. I was able to find a photo of this cross after much searching on the net and this chid's blooms look nothing like that photo. Enc Nuresery Rhyme x Enc rufum_0165 The spike on my plant is about 3' tall with about 100 buds. There is a wonderful fragrance coming from the first few opened blooms, but they're a greenish yellow and small. I can't see any 'Nursery Rhyme' (cordigera x Atronecium) traits in the flowers at all. They look all rufum to me. Perhaps my plant's bulbs and leaves reflect the 'Nursery Rhyme' heritage but I've been unable to find photos of the base of these plants for comparison to mine.

Here is what my plant looks like. Could the I.D. be correct? I'm pretty sure they got the rufum part right.
Thanks.

[PeaceLoveOrchids]

What happened with that tag? I think the orchid you got has a case of identity theft! Or it's the thief, either one.....It's pretty though!

[PaphMadMan]

It does look 100% E. rufa in flower, inflorescense and plant - and rufa is pretty distinctive. With the cross written Nursery Rhyme x rufa it should mean rufa gave the pollen. If it was the other way around I would assume there was an accidental self-pollination of rufa. As it is I would assume it just got mixed up and mis-labeled.

BTW, no quotes on Nursery Rhyme, single or double. It is the name of the cross, not a cultivar name, and quotes just create potential confusion.

[RobS]

I agree with PaphMadMan looks like Enc rufa to me.

[Junebug]

My thanks to everyone for their responses.

A little more background on this plant. I purchased it for $5.00 from a casual acquaintance who was phasing out his orchid collection. Other than a need for repotting the plant was in good condition. I got a tagged Pot. Burana Beauty 'Burana' from the same guy. It eventually bloomed and the blooms did match the name. He also yanked and gave to me, some type of Papiolionanthe (terete vanda) that was growing along a beam of his shadehouse. The vanda has not yet recovered enough to bloom, but it has recovered from the shock. It is now stabilized and growing well, and I'm anxious to see her bloom.

[RobS]

I'd take that one too for $5. Nice buy.

[dounoharm]

just like 'al' x 'laura', my parents.....my siblings look nothing like me, while i look a lot like my dad....thats the way seedlings are....the cross may be a truthful tag, you just got the seedling that took after 'rufa'....

[RobS]

This is not true in plants. The hybrid (F1) between two "distant" species / hybrids should be fairly uniform and intermediate between both parents. The only segregation can be based on the parents of Nursery Rhyme and both are far from rufa. In the F2 (a selfing of the F1) you can find the full range between parents but even then I wouldn't expect a plant so close to one of the original parent when they are rather far from each other unless you screen a huge number of plants.

The probability of a label mix up in any case is larger then finding a plant like this one from this cross.

[PaphMadMan]

Originally Posted by RobS

This is not true in plants. The hybrid (F1) between two "distant" species / hybrids should be fairly uniform and intermediate between both parents. The only segregation can be based on the parents of Nursery Rhyme and both are far from rufa. In the F2 (a selfing of the F1) you can find the full range between parents but even then I wouldn't expect a plant so close to one of the original parent when they are rather far from each other unless you screen a huge number of plants.

The probability of a label mix up in any case is larger then finding a plant like this one from this cross.

I agree completely. The differences between human siblings and how much they resemble one parent or the other might be a good analogy for a cross between complex hybrids, but is not a good analogy at all for a cross between distinctly different species. Nursery Rhyme is a simple hybrid, close enough to being a species that it makes no difference. This cross should be quite uniform in appearance, and based on pictures of similar crosses I would expect most of the distinctive characteristics of E. rufa to be recessive rather than dominant.

[Orchidjim]

Junbug, there is no question. It is Encyclia rufa the species. All of ours are blooming now. The Nursery Rhyme bloomed last month, but they can certainly overlap. Nice plant. Comes from the Bahama's.