Cattleya trianae var. alba 'Aranka Germaske'
 

Unfortunately, it is sterile (a triploid maybe), otherwise it would be a fantastic parent for white hybrids!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/...39e773c8_t.jpg

:bowing
Love this !

This is a side note but what is the difference in offspring of selfing and of sib cross... Im trying to figure out which would produce I guess more of the desired traits found in the original. Someone had mentioned that selfing often yields to less attractive plants with fewer desirable traits than the original.
If you have any info I would love to hear about it.

On a side note- it seems that that stupid fungus got all the purpuratas, I dont know why :( - but I threw them all out- all the other plants seem to be safe! Very Weird, Right?

Suzie, take a look at an article I wrote entitled 'I own the Cattleya percivaliana 'Farah Diba': Orchid Articles. I believe that after reading it you will agree that selfing will produce more plants similar to the original.
Big trouble that fungus, ha? I have been dealing with it too this year. A few plants presented the symptoms. And yes, it is interesting that it seems to ‘choose’ some species and not others… healthy plants are attacked and weak ones not…very weird!! I really hate using chemicals, but had to do it (Cercobin).

Selfing limits the available genetic possiblilites to just the one parent, so the offspring would most likely be less variable. An outcross has double the genes to choose from so there are more possible combinations and should result in more variable seedlings.

We often don't know what a cross will yield. If your "desired traits" are not dominant it's just a shot in the dark. Breeding gets a bit tricky but we can get an idea of how a plant breeds by looking at some of its offspring crosses. Sometimes growes raise thousands of seedlings just to find the one genetic needle in a haystack.

Beautiful old timer!

Thank you for the article, alongside a few laughs :rofl: it did provide some insight!
Im sorry to hear you are struggling with the fungus as well, its verrry selective, Im finding it only attacked the purpuratas/tenebrosa has left the others untouched, its weird. Is this pathogen a result of contaminated water, medium, air? Anything I can do to prevent it from hitting me again? I HATE using hard chemicals like Cercobin, so I feel your pain.


Royal- Thank you for that information, to me it seems selfing reduces genetic variability meanwhile sib cross or so forth gives the genepool more options for potential outcomes. I also heard that with self cross you will get some plants better than the mother plant, some same, and many worse. who knows :)

Just lovely!!

It is a ground fungus, Suzie. So, a good prevention is to keep the plants at least two feet or more from the ground.

At the risk of being the setup man for shots from genetics experts, here are a few comments as they relate to ORCHID breeding. Mother nature deals with plentitude and genetic diversity to assure the survival of species, by means of pollinators carry pollen from one flower to flowers of another plant. In fact some species have mechanisms which prevent self-pollination or at least make it difficult.

Although breeders generally recognize the inherent risks of self pollination, sometimes, there is no alternative to selfing a plant in cultivation. In some cases, only one or a few plants of a species were discovered. In order to propagate a plant, selfing was necessary. In many more common cases, breeders may have had only one plant (not necessarily the original) to work with. Carried out over generations, some species,consequently, may become less vigorous and prone to disease or other afflictions. For these very reasons, in most contemporary human societies, marriage between closely related individuals is either prohibited or discouraged.

While continued selfing of successive generations might lead to less variation, this is not necessarily a good thing. I have seen certain species (line bred for generations) develop a reputation for being, weak, non-vigorous and difficult to bloom. Then when a specimen of the same species was aquired, from jungle seed or close to a natural source (with its non-depleted gene pool) the offspring grew and bloomed much more vigorously under the same cultural conditions.

Sometimes, the term "species A x sibling" is not used properly. "species A x sibling" would mean that a plant has been crossed to a same generation member of the same seed batch (brother and sister, if you will). However, if 2 unrelated plants of the same species are crossed, they should be designated as "species A x species A". For ease of designation, sometimes a cross between 2 unrelated plants of the same species is incorrectly designated as "species A x sibling".

Mauro, your cats are always just amazing, wondering if you can tell me what you grow them in primarily. I use a mixture of some spagnum, clay pellets, lava rock and charcoal, works ok till I move them outside and the wind gets blowing. Some of the plants seem too heavy and fall over, think I need more weight to my mix.