Onc. leaf thickness? Some succulent-like, some very thin.

[alaskagirl]

This may seem like a weird question, but...

I grow mainly Oncidiums. Some of them have very small pseudobulbs with thick/succulent-like leaves (Hwra. Lava Burst & Onc. Carnival Costume), and others have large pseudobulbs with thin, flexible leaves (Onc. Sharry Baby & Onc. Twinkle). Is there a certain term for these differences? I seem to do much better with the thicker succulent-type leaved Onc's than others. I would like to get more of these in my collection but don't know what to look for!

Anybody have any advice???

[kavanaru]

Hi, I am not sure whether I understand what you are asking, but let me give you some input about the genus, and the huge variation you find. Oncidium is a very large neo-tropical genus... you have species not larger than few centimeters and others that can grow larger than 1 meter. At the same time, you have species growing at sea level (very hot and dry) and other at more than 2000 meter above sea level (very cold and mostly also very humid, some exceptions with the humidity), and any other possible environment in between (hot and wet, hot and dry, cold and wet, cold and dry, etc). Therefore, you have species within the genus, which are adapted to very extrem conditions. Those from hot and weathers would tend to have thicker (succulents and/or teretes) leave than those from wetter weathers. Based on this, you can extrapolate that plants with thicker leave are more tolerant to dryness (lower humidity and less watering) than those with thin leave. However, you would need to check for the specific needs of each species, as some thin leaved ones, have large pseudobulbs, which help them tolerate dry conditions...

I hope, this helps you to understand this fascinating genus...