Cattleya, but not hybrid? - Orchid Board

Acharn · #1 08-05-2014, 01:11 AM

My niece went to the weekend market at the nearby Army camp Saturday and brought me this gorgeous Cattleya. This is in Thailand, and most orchids here (especially the Dendrobiums) are hybrids, so I didn't expect to be able to identify it. I started browsing through the Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia, and to my amazement found that the flower is almost exactly like the Cattleya gaskelliana. Can anyone help me confirm this? It would be really nice to have a species, although I guess it would't bloom as often as a hybrid bred for frequent blooming. My only other cattleya is actually a laelocattleya hybrid, and although Ive gotten it to start growing again it hasn't bloomed for years.

Brooke · #2 08-05-2014, 08:33 AM

Here is mine -

C gaskelliana LUR_4274 by kentucky4, on Flickr

I can't say your isn't the gaskelliana but the lip doesn't appear to have enough yellow on it.

Whatever it is, it is gorgeous.

Brooke

katrina · #3 08-05-2014, 08:45 AM

I agree w/Brooke on the yellow in the throat. Also, to me, the lip doesn't look at rolled as what I usually see in gaskelliana. Usually you see the lip rolled into what looks like a long tube whereas in your pics it looks too open and flattened. Maybe? Could just be the angle of your pics.

I would lean more toward your first thought that this is a hybrid. And a beauty of one it is!

Acharn · #4 08-05-2014, 10:48 AM

Well, it's not a big deal. I kind of wish I could identify some of my plants, but as long as they don't die I guess it's OK. At least one of my Dendrobiums, which was flowering when my niece gave it to me in January, is growing two flower spikes, and the Laelocattleya is growing a new pseudobulb. I've moved it to where it's getting more sun and have hopes.

euplusia · #5 08-07-2014, 02:32 AM

Most probably a hybrid, and nearly impossible to call it by its right name. But a good catch anyway.

Acharn · #6 08-07-2014, 10:50 AM

Yeah, I'm real pleased. I can't always trust my family to choose plants that I can live with, but they've been outstanding this year. It's an unfortunate fact of life that almost all the orchids that I'm able to buy here are hybrids, because Thailand has such a huge flower exporting business, plus they use an enormous number in their religious rituals themselves. And orchids are ridiculously cheap here, but that means they need plants that flower all year round and that means hybrids.