Genus Clarification

[TheNewGuy]

So I was doing some research on a miltassia that I have late at night (as always, hehe) and found the genus Oncidium. However, what I didn't understand is that how can an intergeneric hybrid of two different genuses be part of the genus oncidium??? Am I missing something or are there like sub-classes or something???

[quiltergal]

Oncidium is also an alliance. An alliance is a group of different genus that share many similarities. Brassia, Miltonia, Odontoglossum and Oncidium are all members of the Oncidium alliance. Just as Laelia, Brassavola, Epidendrum, Cattleya and Sophronitis are all part of the the Cattleya alliance.

[TheNewGuy]

Okay I understand. So can you tell me what tribe, in the scientific classification, that oncidium belongs to? I have two conflicting pieces of information. One says it is from the tribe Maxillarieae and the other says that it is from the tribe Cymbidieae. Which is it, do you know?

[Phantasm]

Oncidium is in the tribe Cymbidiaea subtribe Oncidiinae.

check out this link for the taxonomy of Orchidaceae:

Taxonomy of the Orchidaceae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dorothy]

According to Wikipedia - Miltassia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Subfamily: Higher Epidendroideae
Tribe: Cymbidieae
Subtribe: Oncidiinae
Alliance: Hybrids
Genus: × Miltassia

[Dorothy]

Phanta - you beat me to it

[TheNewGuy]

You know what, I actually edited that wikipedia page after I did some research. hehe. It originally said the tribe for oncidium was Maxillarieae but when I went to that link I couldn't trace the sub tribe so I looked some more and noticed the mistake. I was pretty proud of myself.

[Dorothy]

[TheNewGuy]

Thanks for the help out everyone, I think I'm all info'ed up for the time being.