Den. fameri X Mousmee [D. amabile X D. thyrsiflorum]
 

Den. frameri X Mousmee [D. amabile X D. thyrsiflorum]

Went walking up our driveway this afternoon.
To my amazement I saw a spray of orchids I had begun to believe I'd never see.

Last winter [our winter], while Texas was being hit hard with low temps, we had a cold spell.
I saw the coolest temps I'd ever seen here.
Normally, the coolest we'll ever see here is about 63°F.
Last winter's cool spell went dowen to about 56°F for a couple of days.
I had hopes it would be cool enough to get it to bloom.
Apparently, it has worked.

In my excitement, I have taken pics too soon.
I'll need to take some more when the blossoms open.

Way back when I acquired this plant, I had seen a pic ID'd as being a D. Mousmee.
It had beautiful bright dark purple tepals with a gold throat.
I was hoping for and expecting a similar coloring, ... fool that I was.

Mine began opening yesterday morning.
It has opened all its flowers by today.
Sepals had a faint purplish blush on the tips of the buds.
But, the flowers are basically white with a yellow throat, as both D. farmeri and thyrsiflorum usually are.
Amabile usually has pale purplish to whitish tepals with a yellow throat.

I've always favored larger flowers.
But, these are smaller, about 1-1/2" dia.

With the number of unbloomed canes, I'm thinking many more and larger infloresences would be the result a longer period of winter temps at 45 to 55°F.

I am not a great fan of white flowered orchids.
I much prefer colored flowers.
But, I've waited so long to see this one, I'm happy with the white coloring.

D. Mousmee is a rare hybrid with a fair number of grexes.
It also has a fair number of claims that are considered to be anywhere from wrong to false from those wanting to own a fairly rare hybrid.

Because of orchid naming disagrements, some list one of Mousmee's parent plants as being different.
The parentage listed here is considered to be correct.

For all intent and purposes, this hybrid seems to be a cross of 3 very, very closely related species.
They are so similar, I suspect they all might not truely be different species.