Does colour break mean virus?

[Shirley]

My Slc. Hwa Yuan Star 'Lovely Girl' had fairly even coloring in its first blooming but this time the petals are showing some colour break and it concerns me as it's one of my very favourite plants. Does this likely indicate a virus?

[Daethen]

She is just beautiful. Can't give you any advice, but I can see why you would hate to lose her.

[catwalker808]

Shirley.
Be happy. Those darker markings on the petals are not color breaks. They are the flaring, blushes ... whatever else you might want to call them. They are the intended results of selected breeding to provide contrasting tones & colors.

On your flowers, the darker coloration is symmetrical. That is, if you make an imaginary line up & down through the center of the flower, the left half & the right half will be mirror images. The darker colorations are mirror images on left & right halves of the flowers. Probably the difference in color pattern on your flowers is due to light and/or temp differences during your previous and recent blooms. The current blooming coloration is the intended pattern.

Color break is something else. It would be usually asymetrical & would occur randomly on the flower. The coloration would normally appear as an irregular streaking on the flower. It may be a darker streak on a light flower, or a light streaking on a dark flower. The different coloration would extend to the back of the flower, so you would see it in back as well.

The streaking may or may not be accompanied by some crippling of the flower shape. Crippling alone does not necessarily indicate virus. (Crippling can occur sometimes due to chemicals or other reasons & may sometimes occur only occasionally & not on previous or subsequent blooms).

Virused plants may also have some brown streaking in leaves, as well. Virused plants may also exhibit difficulty growing or lack of vigor ... but not always.

Note: plants may also be virused and display none of the above mentioned symptoms.

But happily, your flowers do not show color breaks.

[WhiteRabbit]

definitely doesn't look like color break - it's gorgeous!

and Catwalker knows his stuff, so good explanation there ...

[alsorchids]

Love those contrasting, vivid colors. I am certainly no expert as per virus's or a lot of other orchid cultivation matters, but I have noticed shifts in color patterns or shades of red or mahogany as an example. Must be a wonderful blooming plant!

[camille1585]

Those blooms are just stunning! Not color break, and sounds like you got all the explanations you need.

However, even if it was color break, it's not necessarily the result of virus. In the genome there exist 'jumping genes' which jump around in the DNA to insert themselves elsewhere. Sometimes that interfers with the normal functionning of a gene(such as color genes) leading to color breaks. Like peloria it's just a freak occurance that can happen once in a plant and then never again.

[elitebettas]

I don't see color break

[Eyebabe]

I agree, this is NOT color break but a flare pattern that comes from breeding line etc.
I have attached some pics of true color break so you can see what it looks like
These are two plants I purchased back in 2008 before I knew what color break was or what to look for in the plant. The George King 'Serendipity' color break is a bit subtle but the Laelia is quite obvious.
The third pic is the same George King blooming one year later and the virus is worse causing more severe break etc.
I've posted these pics on other similar messages and hopefully they are helpful.

[Shirley]

Thanks everyone for your reassuring comments. I'll just hang on to this plant and see how the next bloom goes!

[orchids3]

I have had changes in color pattern and even deformed flowers - induced by applying too much Calcium Nitrate at the wrong time. (When the buds were forming) The next year I took more care with my fertilizer and the problem did not repeat. If a plant does look virused - seperate it from the other plants and give it a year of observation.