help identifying (possibly) scented orchids

[jt196]

Please!

I'm just getting started with orchids so need a little help. I bought these orchids as bulbs on a holiday in the lovely island of Madeira. Unfortunately there wasn't really any identification with them apart from saying that some of them (if not all) were scented orchids.

I'd love to know what they were so I can take better care of them. They seem to be doing ok as I got them in May and none of them had leaves on them, (apart from the first) and now all seem to be doing pretty well.

My best guesses so far with some image searching are:

1. Odontoglossum
2. No bloomin idea-um
3. Lycaste - although it looks like there's two different types in there from those leaves. Perhaps they're both different types???

Thanks in advance - and looking forward to making lots of use of the forum!

[gnathaniel]

I agree on Lycaste for the 3rd, if you have bloom pics that might help ID though it may be a hybrid that can't be pinpointed exactly. The 2nd resembles Den. kingianum or a kingie-derived hybrid, and the 1st certainly looks like Oncidiinae (incl. Odontoglossum) but I've got no clue beyond that. Hope this helps a little!

[jt196]

Awesome! Thanks Nat!

No blooms yet, so I'll have to wait... at least it's a help to know that it might be a denrobium. Will wait and see if/when they flower I guess.

[Island Girl]

Yep, I agree with what Nat said. And, for further identification, we would need to see the flowers... Even then, it is a guess, and most of the time there's no way to really truly know... because there's a lot of hybrids that look similar to one-another.

[jt196]

Thanks all - I'm not too fussed about the flowers right now. Just want to know the family to I can get them into good shape... then I'll be back to the identification part of the forum!

[CPKidofAugusta]

I'm going to say the the first orchid is Oncidium Sharry baby. That pic looks just like my Onc. S. Baby and every picture of every one i've ever seen and it's pretty much THE scented oncidium, everyone has one. I don't know enough about the other two. #2 is definatley a dendrobium but i find the growth habit if #3 a little to vague. It could be a Lycaste, Anguloa, Stanhopea, or maybe a Coelogyne as far as I know, and those are not the only orchids I know of that grow like that.

[jt196]

Great!

Number 3 I think is 2 different orchids that may have got stuck in together, unless there are orchids that grow with different sized leaves. Looking at the picture the right way round, the left two bulbs are one and the right two another.

The bulb on the left is fatter the bulbs on the right, and the second left with the leaf coming out is covered with dry material. The leaf on the left is about 3 inches wide, and the two leaves on the right are probably only about half an inch wide.

[Aussie42]

I agree - two separate plants.

The third one looks like a Stanhopea at the front (left) - I'm pretty sure on that one - and an "I have no idea" at the back. Hmmm...Ceologyne maybe?

Cheers,
Aus.