Is this c. nobilior?
 

This is suppose to be a c. nobilior coerulea x sib
...Turns out to be a non coerulea and that is okay.
However, it is flowering (first flowering) from what looks like a semi-formed pseudo bulb unlike any c. nobilior i have seen from the internet. I have had this plant since 2010 when it was a seedling and have been growing it in S/H and under bright artificial lights. It is extremely fragrant, the aroma from the two flowers fills up my large bedroom easily during the day.

Is this a c. nobilior or a hybrid of c. nobilior?

Hello to China. Yes, I think so. Although heteromorphism ( lead with bulb and leaves alternating with a rudimentary lead with flowers) is typical for both C. walkeriana and C. nobilior, flowers from the top of a lead with bulb and leaf are not uncommon.
And the flowering season in springtime together with fragrance and flower aspect and the two leaves pro bulb make it a typical C. nobilior for me.
For genetic reasons a sibling of a blue Cattleya will seldom produce blue offspring. To be sure of colour it should be a meristem.

I agree with Euplsia. Here is a picture of mine - nobilior has a pretty distinctive lip.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4008/4...feb459b1_z.jpg
C nobilior LUR_5063 by kentucky4, on Flickr

And the nobilior (hv) amalie form.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2764/5...aa44b225_z.jpg
C nobilior amalie LUR_5971 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Brooke

I was always under the impression also from previous discussions here that the flowering from a shoot was an indication of hybrid origin.

thanks everybody for the help. I have read somewhere that the plant do not really flower from the shoot in nature. Is this only a phenomenon observed in artificial cultivation?

Both of my nobilior bloom from the smaller pbulb type growth. One is from South America and I forget the source of the other one.

Brooke

Miranda seems to believe that this is found in wild plants.
Orchids of Brazil. Taxonomy

Very pretty flowers. The article David links to is very good. It really explains everything. I read this when I was getting my C. walkeriana.

In my post I said I got the one from SA - it came from Miranda's operation.

The nobilior really really needs a hard dry winter to flower profusely.

Brooke

---------- Post added at 06:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:15 PM ----------

When I shut the g/h up I checked on the two nobilior. The one from Miranda, the amalie form, has singleton leaves on the pbulbs.

The other one was from one of my favorite Ebay vendors and it has two leaves per pbulb.

Does this species do whatever it wants to do?

Brooke

The nobilior that I got from Miranda is 'D. Rafael' x 'Luciana' and has 2 leaves. My walkeriana has single leaves. My x mesquitae, a hybrid of the two, that I got from another vendor; the older pseuodobulbs have a single leaf while the newer ones have 2 leaves.