Variability of this selfing of Cattleya warscewiczii var. quasialba 'Sinifana'
 

Hello guys!

I come to you for some questions regarding genetics. I am going to import this gorgeous cattleya warscewiczii variety but it is a selfing (x self at the end) and after some reading I am afraid of it reverting back into a tipo variety. I contacted Orquifollajes in Colombia which is where the orchid will come from and apparently they told me its a bit unstable and that a lot of the offspring revert back to tipo.

I wanted to know if some of you could give me an estimate chance of it turning out to be another quasialba just like the mother plant, if its greater or smaller the chance of getting one compared to a tipo.
Also if in the end the flower ends up being a tipo could I just name it cattleya warscewiczii tipo and give it a cultivar name of whatever I want if I end up liking the flower?

Thanks a lot!

A selfing still shuffles the genes... I have an L. pupurata that was a selfing of an awarded pink one that blooms white. You don't know what was in its line breeding. Yes, no matter how it comes out, you can give it your own clonal name, it's not a clone of the parents.

Interesting, I hope I have some luck and I am able to get this variety because it's just so gorgeous. Out of curiosity in the case of your L. purpurata did you end up giving it a new clonal name?

Thank you for the answer.

I didn't name my purpurata. It's just 'Tipo' x self. In this case 'Tipo' was the name of the cultivar that was awarded... and it did look like a tipo according to the description. But clearly there was some alba in its background someplace. If fact, I asked the breeder about it, wondering if it was mislabled. He said that some of the plants did come out alba.

I don't usually name my plants...I have orchid that was awarded and I had to come up with a clonal name, that's the only one.

I see haha it's interesting that the cultivar name was just 'Tipo'. Fingers crossed for me to get a similar orchid to the mother plant because it's quite a rare variety or even if I don't get the same just another interesting looking tipo. Now I understand the price even if expensive compared to other ones that were not selfing

If you really want a particular form, buy a division, not a seedling.

That is a lovely clone. Would that be considered a delicata? Amesiana? Albescent?
Even if the color reverted, the form would still be very nice and worth keeping.

I contacted the nursery of Orquifollajes which is where this cattley is from and they told me it's a suavisima but I have also seen it called cuasialba (quasialba) online even by them so it's a bit confusing haha

Yeah I really like the form of the flower so even if it's a normal pink tipo I may just keep it and rename it

Note that anybody can give a cultivar name to any plant (to identify a specific plant that might be used in breeding for for sale) , but unless it is awarded, the name doesn't have any "official" standing. For an awarded plant, the cultivar name says "this specific plant" and it's part of the award record. Otherwise, there is no registry of cultivar names.

Since it's not a true alba your plant basically is a tipo, it's just very light. As such it will produce more tipos of varying shades but I think you stand a good chance of getting a light one. How is the pigment on the plant? One way to forcast how the flower will look is to look closely at the pigment in the leaves, bulbs and especially the new growth. I have a suavissima too and the plant has almost no pigment that I can see.

There are some very nice true alba warscewiczii available (at least in the US) if you want one that is guaranteed to be white. Not sure how hard it is to get those from madrid....