Oncidium croesus

[papayj]

This is the its third blooming. When I bought it two years ago, it had 4 pseudobulbs with a single spike with 3 flowers. Last year, I had 6 flowers in two spikes. This year...there are 6 inflorescences with 15 flowers total. It is literally doubling its size year after year that it is almost growing like a weed. Definitely a super-easy growing oncidium species.







As a bonus, the flower is lightly fragrant during bright day.

[judith_arquette]

Beautiful!

[PaphMadMan]

Impressive growth rate. You obviously have the touch with this species.

How big is the plant?

[papayj]

It is quite small. The flower is about 2 cm, with leaves 10 ~ 12 cm and pseudobulbs somewhat stick-like about 4 cm long. As usual with most oncidiums, its vegetative growth coincides with the end of flowering.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Nice one. I love when they grow like this.

[estación seca]

I wonder whether this has been much used in breeding. The upper petal and sepals are wide, and solid brown, like in a lot of hybrids.

[PaphMadMan]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I wonder whether this has been much used in breeding. The upper petal and sepals are wide, and solid brown, like in a lot of hybrids.

Oncidium croesus has only been used in a couple registered hybrids. Technically it is Gomesa croesus now, and about half the Gomesa genus plus plenty other Oncidium types have similar flower colors, so the pattern is common in hybrids too.

The 2 registered hybrids from this species are:

Gomesa croesus x Oncidium (Cochlioda) noezliana = Oncidesa Kathy Jo Brown

Brassia (Ada) keiliana x Gomesa croesus = Bramesa Enigma.

Since the 2 known hybrids are with quite different Oncid alliance plants I presume it is generally fertile. Perhaps it has been little used in hybrids because it has few flowers per spike compared to many other Oncids, though it can make quite a show with several spikes at once on a compact plant.

[Tindomul]

Great colour combination.