Virus?
 

Is this a virus? If not what causes it?

Dammit. I keep forgetting to attach the pic.

Color break in Cattleya flowers is a huge warning sign of possible virus. However, without testing the plant, you cannot be 100% certain. If the plant is important to you, I would suggest separating it from the rest of the plants in your collection and test it for virus. If it tests clean, it could be from environmental or chemical changes.

A decent work around if you can't test it, is to leave it separated, wait another round of flowering, and check. Another streak will raise the odds for virus.

Thank you for your responces.

Hopefully the flowers will be normal for you next time. I have also set aside suspicious plants for a time and, twice, I have felt uncomfortable enough to end up tossing them but, most of the time, the orchid has been normal ever after and grown vigorous and normally. Only once did I have color break in the flowers and that one eventually got other types of markings in the leaves. It also did not send out the new growths on time and they didn't grow very vigorously. The orchid had come into contact with another orchid at an OS meeting that was rather suspicious. :(

A few interesting reads:

Orchid Pests, Orchid Diseases

http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/orc...ientist-29713/

http://www.parramattaorchidsociety.o...ids%20PDOS.pdf

http://www.orchidsocietynsw.com.au/D...id_Viruses.pdf

I hope this helps. I had another article written by someone that worked in a lab with plant viruses but I couldn't find it.

I have never seen colour break in Cattleya flowers in a virus-free plant. But to acquire a test makes sense to check your other plants.

Yeah, I'm curious and please test it and let us know.
I say very virusy. hahaha

Keeping it might put your other plants in danger.
Bugs do take part in spread certain virus and there's always a chance that one forgets or makes a mistake.
Unless you have a totally different room dedicated for virused (or supposedly so ) plants, which I think is a waste of space to be practical.