The Lovely Laelia tenebrosa
 

This would be a favorite in my collection....but unfortunately, the poor thing has a virus. It was too beautiful to get rid of, so it has it's own little spot away from the rest of the 'chids. Because of this, I can't use it for breeding....although, I have heard that viruses can be passed from the seed parent to the offspring, and that virus is NOT passed from the pollen parent to the offspring. Can anyone confirm this, cuz I'd sure like to breed this one.
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How do you know it's virused? Did you test or diagnose based on streaking. It's gorgeous.

It always has a little bit of streaking. I've had it almost three years now, and every time it blooms, the streaking is present. It's really unfortunate, because I don't think I've seen this color combo before on a tenebrosa. I have an aurea form that is more of a golden color, but I really like this rusty color.

Gorgeous flowers! One of my favorites. You CAN use this to hybridize if you wish. Just make sure that you use this plant as the POD parent. If you use is as a pollen parent and it happens to be virused, you stand a chance of passing that virus on to what ever plant you chose to cross it with. You should also let the pod mature and have it flasked from the dry seed. Usually, virus is not present in the seeds themselves and in any case, the seed will be chemically sterilized. If you green pod it, there is always the chance of transferring virus from the capsule tissue. Good luck with your hybridizing attempts.

It's worth testing, especially if you want to breed with it. Testing is relatively inexpensive and is really the only way to know for sure.

Susan

See, I was told the opposite...that the seed parent (or mother) was the one that would pass the virus. Now I might have to do some research. Thanks for the input.

Jerry is correct in his caution about using a virused plant only as a pod parent. Think of it this way. In human reproduction, there is mutual contact & hence the chance of mutual exchange of disease. In the case of orchid reproduction, only pollen is exchanged ... in one direction only. It is true that a virused pod parent can transmit virus to the seed offspring. However, Jerry's point is that if you use pollen from a virused plant to pollinate a clean plant, you stand a chance of infecting the clean plant also. If you use clean pollen to pollinate a virused plant, then nothing has changed in either plant.

HOWEVER, there have been other questions raised about the possibility of DRY seed from a virused plant also producing virused offspring. Granted, the incidence of virus occurring from green pods has been well demonstrated. The question of virus occurring in dry seed offspring also has arisen among some testing laboratories, because usually testing of offspring takes place when seedlings are relatively young. It is believed that many testing procedures cannot detect the very low levels of virus occurring in small young plants. As these plants mature, the level of any viruses which might have too low to detect also increases and then becomes detectable.

Without intending to be preachy, a very basic question from all of this is: "Do you really want to or need to use a virused plant for seed production, knowing the probable/possible outcome?" While you love your Laelia tenebrosa, it is neither a unique nor an irreplaceable plant . There are many other tenebrosa plants around which are virus free, which you could use for your breeding purposes.

AMEN!

Well, it just goes to show you that, if your lucky, you learn something new every day. I had not heard this but had always thought that even in the best of conditions, the detection of virus can be a hit or miss proposition. After all the test is basically an ELISA test and there must be a threshold level of virus present for a positive test. The incident of false positives is most likely quite low but the possibility of false negatives may be somewhat higher than we think. Its been a long time since I was in the lab and I am quite sure that the test has become much more accurate than years ago. I know of cases years ago where a plant would test positive then a year later test negative. Depending upon where and how the sample it taken I see no reason that incidents like this could still occur today. Thanks Cattwalker for the undated info.

Yes, thank you all for the input.