Wow! Photography Section Here I come!

[CandiMc]

Here is Victoria. Ain't she purdy? my first flowering plant!

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1368015703.126626.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk1368015714.432455.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1368015721.248930.jpg

[tucker85]

Congratulations! Very pretty!

[CandiMc]

thank you very much tucker85!

[Discus]

Good pics. Like the use of outdoor light.

[WhiteRabbit]

Nice!

[CandiMc]

Thank you very much everyone! Does anyone know the actual kind or is phal orchid as good as it gets?

[RosieC]

Really lovely, love that one against the sky!

[Discus]

Originally Posted by CandiMc

Thank you very much everyone! Does anyone know the actual kind or is phal orchid as good as it gets?

Unless there's a label with the variety printed on it, Phalaenopsis NOID is as good as it gets, I'm afraid. It's virtually impossible to identify (within an acceptable margin of error) the variety of a hybrid Phalaenopsis just by looking at it. Indeed, quite a lot of phalaenopsis are probably not even Phalaenopsis, but Doritaenopsis (intergeneric hybrids between Phalaenopsis and the closely related Doritis). You might find this interesting: http://www.angrek.com/AAOS/Past/9612.../Txt/Phal.html. Other intergeneric hybrids also exist; scroll down to Phalaenopsis in this list to see them: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/Plant-s...ms/orchidgenus

In theory, one might be able to work out what it was from genetic analysis, but as samples of every hybrid don't exist, this is also impossible!

Once you get serious about orchids, you'll often only buy orchids that are properly labelled, usually from specialist growers who understand the need for that. Of course, there is always the odd NOID (or YAP- Yet Another Phalaenopsis) that sneaks its way into the grocery basket...

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by Discus

Of course, there is always the odd NOID (or YAP) that sneaks its way into the grocery basket...

Yeah... a sneaky one did that to me a few weeks back It is virtually identical flowers and growth to a named one I already have (but the new NoID is for my office) but I still can't put that name against it as it was not tagged when bought.

[Discus]

Originally Posted by RosieC

It is virtually identical flowers and growth to a named one I already have (but the new NoID is for my office) but I still can't put that name against it as it was not tagged when bought.

Precisely - and the more breeding goes on in a given group, the harder and harder it can become to tell them apart by eye (because with breeding, you're usually aiming towards a standard, like a big round dinnerplate of a flower of a particular colour); if you look at the so-called Complex Paphiopedilums or Photo Gallery Paph Complex 1 for instance, within a breeding line they sort of start to all blend towards something that looks pretty much the same to most people (unlike the primary hybrids) - even if two particular similar looking plants actually have quite different ancestry. Phalaenopsis are also probably approaching this, where one large plain pink phal is much like another. Of course, given the huge amount of meristem culture that goes on in this group, quite a lot of phals that look the same as another one might well be the same thing.
In this case, a genetic test (between a NOID and a named plant) might be feasible, but as I have no idea how varied phalaenopsis genetics are, I have no idea what the appropriate tests might be!
(Indeed you could feasibly end up with two plants with different ancestry with essentially the same mix of [functional] genes, but to an orchid hybridiser, they are not the same; still there should be techniques that would prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they are clones). This also doesn't take into account various epigenetic factors in phenotypic expression.