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Fragrant Catasetinae
I use to not think of Catasetums as being fragrant, but several are. I was curious which ones have nice scents.
My Ctsm. Bela Vista's Sangria 'Jamie's Purple Passion' HCC/AOS x Ctsm. pileatum v. imper is fragrant in the morning. It starts out medicinal than progresses to a nodosa/camphor scent. I hear Clowesia have wonderful fragrances. A friend of mine describes Cl. russeliana as a really nice bath salt. Is there a difference between male and female flowers? |
I have yet to meet one that didn't have fragrance. Many are somewhat medicinal in their aromas...medicinal or camphor-ish (as you stated)...but I've never smelled one that I hated. Most I like.
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Ctsm. fimbriatum often has a fresh pleasing scent. Also Dresslerias, Clowesias (rosea, dodsoniana, russelliana), some Mormodes (ephippilabia) and of course Cycnoches (warscewiczii, lehmannii), to name a few examples that come to my mind.
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Clowesia rosea has never smelled like cinnamon to me. If anything, it is closer to smelling like citrus with honey. Cinnamon-like smells are very distinguishable. The fragrance on this orchid is not terribly distinct.
---------- Post added at 05:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:07 PM ---------- Clowesia rosea is monoecious, (has both male and female parts on one flower). I believe species within the genus Clowesia are generally monoecious. If there are any outliers, I'm not aware of them. I'm not certain that this species is easy to produce selfings of. I tried once, and none of them took even in the least. If you're looking for these, they're extremely hard to find. |
Thanks for the info Phillip. Yes I would like to get one of these one day. They are incredibly beautiful!
Interesting you said the flower are monecious. The AOS article said they are perfect as does orchidspecies.com but wikipedia said they were sometimes unisexual. Any idea what the scent of Cl. amazonica is like? |
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I've never grown Clowesia amazonicum, so I couldn't say what they smell like.
This is another one that is difficult to find. I guess the word "monoecious" can be used differently by some people. With the more common definition of the word being the way you describe it, (a male flower and a female flower on the same plant). The way I learned this word was that on one plant each flower would contain both male and female parts. If it is easier for other people to understand, and to avoid further confusion, then from now on, I will use the term "perfect flower" to mean a plant that has a flower that contains both male and female organs in them. As far as I know, Clowesia have flowers that have both male and female parts in one flower. Keeping in mind that I'm not certain if there are any outliers that may stray from the norm. Although, yes, Cycnoches and Catasetum are more prone to being monoecious in the sense that on one plant they can have both male flowers and female flowers on the same plant at times. It is not always the case, but it can happen. They sometimes display dioecious habits, where one plant has all male flowers, and another plant has all female flowers. |
Clowesia amazonica [Note: gender of a species must agree with the gender of the genus.] was recently described so I guess it's not readily available in the trade. I saw that Bela Vista offered this species in Redlands several years ago. It looks very similar to warczewitzii.
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In any case, this species is somewhat newly described and is very hard to get a hold of. All Clowesia are a pain to find. I got very lucky with finding my Clowesia rosea. Maybe they'll be available again through an international vendor or something, idk. |
Just curious, from which international vendor did you get your rosea?
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I bought mine locally from Sunset Valley Orchids. I don't know if he still has any. When I bought mine, he was in the process of letting them go and only keeping a few. That was about 2 yrs ago.
As was mentioned, Clowesia are very difficult to find for some reason. Cycnoches and Catasetum are easier to find. Mormodes is hard to find too, but not nearly as difficult as Clowesia is. Generally speaking most species of Catasetinae are difficult to find. Some species are more commonly grown than others, but all-in-all it is not a walk in the park to find them again should you wipe out the ones you have. If you want them around take matters into your own hands and breed them. Don't depend on others. Other people may not be interested in the same kinds of plants as you are interested in. Many people are also not interested in breeding species, but are more interested in hybridization, so be aware of this. Either sow the seeds yourself if you are able to do it, or find a lab to do it for you. If you're looking for labs, ask them what their specialty is, and ask them if they've worked with Catasetinae before. Most labs have most likely worked with Catasetinae to some degree or another. Once you get seedlings, the next challenge is to grow them up into adults. Seedlings of Catasetinae do not look like miniature counterparts of their adult brethren. They look like tiny vines. After maybe about a couple of years will they start looking like miniature adult versions of the species. I am actually looking into finding another Clowesia rosea or several other individuals to breed with mine because of the problem of them going out in numbers in the hobby. It'd be a shame if Clowesia rosea were to never be seen in the hobby within our lifetime or ever again. |
I read Cycnodes Wine Delight 'Jem" FCC/AOS is suppose to have a cherry fragrance.
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My only Catasetum type is a Mormodia and it has a menthol scent, but it is not strong.
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