Cattleya Bow Bells 'Rex' AM/AOS
 

For anyone who loves orchid history, and any classic cattleya fans, I highly recommend reading about the famous Bow Bells on Chadwick Orchids website. Some wonderful articles on this landmark white hybrid from the 1940s.

I have managed to obtain a few of the cultivars still in existence, but this one might be my favorite (for now). 'Rex' was one of the earlier awards (1950), and I am guessing it must have been one of the original seedlings imported by Clint McDade (who got the award). I got it from the late Plato Mathews several years ago, and it is particularly interesting to me in that it always blooms with a tiny dusting of magenta spots (and occasional dashes) in the lips. (I have tested this for virus a few times, all negative). I have not been able to locate the original flower description from 1950 and guess that has been lost to posterity.

I had asked every cattleya expert I could find about this unusual pattern, and the responses ranged from "you have a mislabelled plant" to "Bow Bells is known to have some recessive pigment genes" to "this would have been a great question for [longtime cattleya grower, sadly no longer living]". My unproven hypothesis is that somehow in the 70+ years of cultivation something turned "on" to produce this pigment. I had asked Plato himself after the first blooming for me, and he didn't seem to recall seeing it himself but told me about recessive pigment genes. The dusting is more subtle on this blooming but if you look closely it is there. I have never seen any other cattleya with this pattern.

There are no words for how beautiful this is. The form is amazing. There's definitely a reason why this plant is still in cultivation after all these year. I have read the article Jmony references, and it really is fascinating, and definitely worth a read for anybody.

A very fine cultivar indeed. Truly impressive.

It really is beautiful!

Here is a theory on the speckles:

There are two ways to be an alba. There is a suppression of pigment genes. And there is a supression of the genes that create the enzyme that activates the color.

I cant find which Bow Bells is directly, but all three ancestors C. mossiae, C. gaskilliana and C. trianaei frequently lack the enzyme and not the pigment when they are alba. If we assume Bow Bells also lacks the enzyme that means it has the genes for color ready and waiting for the enzyme. If your plant somehow ends up with a few rogue areas making the enzyme, perhaps you would end up with color spots even though your plant is a true alba. Being a polyploid (I think Bow Bells is 3n) might also increase the odds of having random localized mutations that might cause this.

Are there ever spots on the petals or sepals? It may also be a semi alba beneath the alba, which would be interesting!

If you want source material to dig deeper into this let me know! I'd also love to discuss! It's my favorite topic lately.

thank you for the info, I am very intrigued by the mechanisms for achieving the alba phenotype and would love any additional info/links!

Bow Bells is Suzanne Hye (mossiae x gaskelliana) x Edithiae (Suzanne Hye x trianaei), and from Chadwick's article it was surmised that the Suzanne Hye was an exceptional 4N. Most BB from the original cross are then 3N, although some have been confirmed 4N and these were used for breeding ... 'Purity', 'Honolulu' and others.

I have only bloomed this plant 3 times, never any pigment on the petals/sepals. Once a whole sector of the lip was magenta, will attach photo of that flower. While it is subtle, it's certainly very noticeable, and I have not yet come across anyone who has seen this before. (of course virus is always a consideration, although this has been negative; that would not rule out other less common viruses, but I'm not familiar with a virus causing this particular pattern)

Of note, I believe almost all the whites after Bow Bells are tetraploid, the first cross post BB was Bob Betts, and this was made with 4N Bow Bells and the "mossiae" used may really have been the entity now known as Gravesiana 'Snow Queen', also 4N - but that is another story altogether

That's makes sense! I've read that they are all breeding 3n but those cultivars being 4n is logical. How did you learn which ones were tested?

Page 383 of this article goes into some of the genetic stuff with cattleya.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...qiniCgvKspJViJ

My best source had been Rebecca's Northens book "home orchid growing" which adds a gene for semi alba after the two genes for alba. That's one reason I said it can be both alba and semi alba at the same time genetically speaking. Since the spots only seem to occur on the lip, that may be the case with your plant. Do you.know if 'Rex' has any progeny?

I have noticed little magenta flecks show up in the lip of my C. Earl ‘Imperialis’ as well.

Harry and Roy from H & R have sprinkled little snippets in their talks of how they have achieved some of the breeding they have performed over the years. When you line breed polyploids you can start to figure out what genes are on what chromosomes and can "organize" them. You can use this method to create intermediate forms that cannot be created with diploids. I'm not sure what is happening here but if you believe this to be a polyploid its possible there is one active pigment enzyme on one of the chromosomes but the vast majority of genes in expression are not so you end up with this.

It must be a single transcription error in a cell which causes a spot. If that cell mutates early in the flower development perhaps each cell down the line is also purple which is how you end up with big chunks of purple. The reason I think a tetraploid is more likely to do this is because it has twice as many alleles that could potentially mutate away from the recessive and cause the enzyme to be produced.

Enjoying this discussion! My favorite Bow Bells is 'Purity' FCC/AOS as shown by Jeff Bradley in his Historic White Cattleyas discussion, highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRzGeuMrX3g