Colmanara Orchid in flower, similar looking to Wildcat 'Bobcat'

[RosieC]

The true identity of my Colmanara orchid is unclear. It was sold under the name Cambria 'Bobcat' which, as Cambria is a generic name for Oncidium intergenerics, and as some places sell with only the cultivar name and missing out the hybrid name, could have meant it was Wildcat 'Bobcat'... except the look while very close is not quite right.

It's close enough that several times I've seen a picture of Wildcat 'Bobcat' or seen it at a show and thought "that is what I've got" then when I compare pictures of mine to the other pictures I realise it isn't.



Both have the same size and same shape dark red flowers, with yellow highlights. Both have a yellow tinting to the back of the flowers (almost like a yellow pigment is overlayed on the red).

However mine has faint yellow striping on the flowers, where Wildcat 'Bobcat' has yellow edging to the top petals and sepals.



Mine is closer looking to Wildcat 'Bobcat' than something like Wildcat 'Ocelot', which makes me think it could be the same hybrid... but at the very least it must have very similar parentage.

The sweep of flowers is quite tall, even this picture only captures half of it.



Anyway... the plant it's self has problems. Three attempts at new growth were eaten off, and now it does not seem inclined to try again. I wonder if there are no more eyes left to grow. I was therefore very pleased when a new spike started in early August... at least I get to enjoy some more flowers even if it never grows further.

It opened over a month ago, and is still in full flower... which gave me the opportunity to get around to taking pictures.

[Nic100]

That's a pretty impressive spray Rosie! Is that just one spike? What has been eating it?

[RosieC]

Thanks Nicky. Yes just one spike but with masses of side shoots.

I found a large earwig in the medium when I repotted and suspect that to be the culprit. That was before I put any of these outside/in the greenhouse over the summer so I don't believe it was the slugs. It's not tried any new shoots all summer, which is why I think it may not have any more eyes

[camille1585]

It's fantastic!! What a huge bushy spike. I wouldn't entirely give up on it ever putting out new growths. The plant will want to reproduce, which means new growths. Somehow, somewhere (maybe on an older bulb) it will find another eye to nudge awake.

It's so confusing with the names! At least yours had some sort of name on the tag, the ones here usually say 'cambria', 'cattleya' or just 'orchid'. Although there is one grower (cameleon orchids) which has all the names (except for my Brassia! ) on their website.

[RosieC]

Thanks Camille,

It really does look fantastic. Difficult to get pictures that show off just how good it looks.

Hopefully you are right that it will manage to find an eye somewhere. I won't give up on it until it's dead... even if it doesn't grow it may flower again, as this spike came off a p-bulb that had already had a spike an both sides, this spike came from between different leaves than the previous ones... so you never know, it's worth keeping just in case it does that again.

I've used the Cameleon Orchids website before to ID plants that had their tags in the pot. Two of my Den Phal types came from them and I managed to get an ID for them.

Mostly they just say Orchidee on ones here, you are lucky if you get as much detail as 'Cattleya' or 'Cambria'. Phals are generally labeld as such, usually '1 spike Phal' or '2 spike Phal' as the number of spikes is their main categorisation.

[RosieC]

It did! It found an eye to start growing again.

It seems to be growing from the side of one of the half eaten growth attempts from about 18 months ago. I'm so excited

[NealW]

Some of the large European orchid wholesalers have adopted the term "Cambria orchid" to mean any Odont/Onc intergeneric hybrid. This is due to the long term popularity of Vuyl Cambria 'Plush'. The growers figure that everyone knows what a "Cambria" type is by now. In the US there seems to be a movement to patent the clones giving only the clonal name without the Grex... Vuyl 'Plush' in the example above, leaving out the cross name. Personally I don't like either trend. I want to know the Genus, the Grex (cross name), and the Clone name, so I can research the ancestry and understand the plant better.
Okay, this is me gettin down off my soapbox.


BTW, yes I'm pretty sure that is a Colm Wildcat 'Bobcat' and a very nice job of blooming it. Good to hear it has plans to continue. Yeah

[camille1585]

Yay!! I'm glad the plant managed to get another growth going. Hopefully it'll give you another huge spike!

[RosieC]

The new growth is progressing pretty fast at the momment

I've heard of a trend to use only clone names. It happens in Pleione a lot apparently and someone was able to give me the grex of one of those I had with only the clone name.

I do think it looks very close to Wildcat 'Bobcat' but I don't know if the differences to pictures I've seen of that really matter or not (yellow stripes rather than yelow outline on the petals).

Anyway, I'm thrilled it's growing again (I can see lots of root growth as well)

[NYCorchidman]

This is two year old now, but I followed it after reading Ryan's thread of his yellow widlcat.

Yours is so impressive!
I do think it is a bobcat although most bobcat I've seen had more of reddish brownish lip.
The subtle yellow area on the petals and sepals are present on some clones and not on others I've noticed.

By the way, how is this plant doing now?
Still giving you wonderful spray of flowers??

That one picture showing the entire spike is impressive!!!!