Hello OB, I recently received a cattleya dowiana in the mail today and it has this very bizarre marking, pictured below. Parts of it look very mechanical, but the middle is sunken in. Any thoughts? Rest of the plant checks to be alright and seems to be growing just fine. Will be purchasing viral testing strips soon nonetheless...
JG - If it is dry and hardened, then don't even worry about it or give it a second thought. Most likely just some past damage/injury, and now it is healed up.
Agree. Looks like old healed-over damage of some sort. Nothing I'd lose any sleep over.
Mind if I ask where it came from?
Took me ages to find a dowiana! I found this one on Ebay from a vendor named mxnorchids. Normally I'm pretty suspicious of Ebay vendors, but he has a 100% rating out of 887 reviews.
You already got lots of good comments but I'll just add mine here too. It definitely looks mechanical, but keep an eye on it. If it starts growing, that section of the leaf, or the whole leaf, will need to be removed.