Is this a Cattleya?
 

Backstory: I volunteered at an auction that my local society held and this plant(the large conical pseudobulb on the cork mount, not the bamboo encyclias) was one I had a chance to bid on during a break in delivering plants to the winning bidders. I didn’t catch the plant’s description, but I bid on it because I thought it looks cool. Is this a Cattleya?

Link to a clearer pic—IMG 1488 — Postimages

:hmm Why not ask while you were there?

I would have, but I was literally working. I wasn’t necessarily supposed to be part of the bidding audience, so naturally I focused on the job I had to do which was running plants to and from racks and podiums for winning bidders—I was busy:biggrin:

I don't know.
The leaves are Cattleya like but those pbulbs...

Yeah I think I posted in the wrong section; I don’t know why my mind immediately associated this with something Cattleya-esque…

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:26 PM ----------

Myrmecophila perhaps?

It looks like what used to be called Schomburgkia. They've been moved into Myrmecophila and Laelia. High light, lots of water, high humidity.

Thanks ES! I’m going to spray it down now!

I just saw you're in south Florida. Tie it on the north side of a tree so it can get established and grow into the sun.

I’ll no doubt have to put it outside somewhere; I didn’t realize this could potentially have a fishing pole of an inflorescence :shock:

Thanks again, ES!

I would guess Myrmecophila. (The former "Schomburgkias" that were classified as Laelia have slimmer pseudobulbs and different leaf shape)

Thank you Roberta! I was trying to get a better idea by looking at the pseudobulbs of the species that the Schomburgkias were split in to—quite a marked difference between some, but I still wouldn’t trust my assessment. You folks are the experience speaking, I’m just an earnest ear :biggrin:

Take a look at Myrmecophila tibicinis vs Laelia splendida . Both have really long spikes, the flowers have similar wavy petals (which is how they got grouped into Schomburgkia) The p-bulbs and leaves are really different, the lips are very different too. So the split does make a lot of sense.

I can’t blame the taxonomists for their earlier consolidation of the genera—it’s interesting that they evolved to display in such similar ways…perhaps a common pollinator? I’m going to dig into this a bit further!

If you unvover a cool pollination "syndrome" (word used to describe pollination behavior) or a reason why they grow such long stalks please tell us!

On the topic of the long stalk, I’ve heard a claim that it’s for clearing the canopy in order to be more visible, but I have no way of substantiating that in a timely manner…Makes sense though if there’s a canopy to compete with, so I wonder if those species found in more deciduous environments tend to have shorter spikes because there’s little canopy to contend with. Rabbit holes in rabbit holes!