Darwin and Catasetum

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by mcintyre63

Thank you very much King_of_orchid_growing and Kavanaru. Kavanaru: Darwin identified the barbatum-type flower as hermaphroditic, though you are confident it was male. Given that Darwin was examining a flower preserved in spirits, and a male Ctsm. barbatum does have vestigial female organs, it's not hard to see how Darwin could have been mistaken on this point. Given that the Ctsm. maculatum and Ctsm. barbatum flowers Darwin described were both males, is it fair to say it's impossible for the two to appear on one plant? It seems a silly question, given that we're identifying them as two different species, but Darwin's conclusion was that they were the same species. In Darwin's defense, he did not report seeing all three flowers on one plant--he was acting on someone else's report, and the flowers he examined were from at least two different plants.

I would need to read the original article to know exactly what heppened there. However. the main point here is that Darwin apparebntly worked with preserved flowers of no clear origin. In my text above, I was discussing what I could see on the drawings, and not directly what Darwing had done or not.

Originally Posted by mcintyre63

Here's one more way to put the question: Can a Ctsm. maculatum plant ever produce a flower resembling the male Ctsm. barbatum (or vice versa)?

if we speak about male flowers, YES it is impossible! it woul dbe like expecting a Cattleya mossiae producing flowers resembling Cattleya luteola... However, if we talk about female flowers, or even some hermaphrodites (tending to look like females), it is possible that the flowers are similar and some not trained could misidentify them...