Sophronitis cernua 'Kasei' (火星)
 

This little guy is starting to bloom a little over a week ago. Excited to see the little orange flowers in person!

'Kasei' (火星) refers to the planet Mars.

Sigh okay pretend I can actually spell things.

*Sophronitis cernua

Title of thread fixed. It is a wonderful little species.

Thanks, Roberta.

One thing I forgot to mention: apparently this guy is a polyploid. Could lead to some neat breeding if I find another mini-Cattleya or compact Cattleya that'd be worth crossing it with down the line. I would like to wait til this guy makes some more bulbs, though.

They grow pretty slowly. So don't be in a rush, just enjoy the flowers. If it wants to climb out of the pot, just let it do its thing... I have found the species to do quite well mounted.

Cool! Cant wait to see it! I love these little guys but I couldnt hope to grow them. So glad you are!

Ps. Decent chance your plant is 3n which will make it an awesome plant to grow but not a good breeder. Worth digging inro before you try, it might save you some effort. Plus, its just so interesting! Sorry to presume if you already knew all that!

Cool! What part of Texas are you in?

I live up North. We get fun weather up here. It's going to be down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit one night, and then on Thanksgiving it's going to be a nice 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

Okay, apologies, I've been meaning to upload these for a minute.

Super cute flowers. They seem a bit more overlapped in the petals than other S. cernua I've seen, but I'm no expert here.

Thought I'd try selfing it, so I got a tiny brush and got deep in the open flowers to see if I could make anything happen. With my luck probably nothing will happen, or the seeds produced will be duds, but might has well try. :D

I'll have to message Satomi from Seed Engei, as she did mention in the ebay listing it was a polyploid. Didn't specify 3n or 4n, though.