Confused about naming hybrids

[ArronOB]

One of the things that confuses me about naming hybrids is this:

Imagine a registered orchid hybrid which has been derived by combining two named parents. If I independently obtain specimens of those two parents, and cross them, can the offspring be named and registered anew, or are they simply identified by the name registered with the original crossing.

To illustrate this:

I have an orchid labelled as LC Santa Barbara Sunset, which apparently is a cross between Laelia anceps and LC Ancibarina. If I independently obtain a LC Ancibarina from somewhere, and cross it with one of my Laelia anceps, is the cross ‘Santa Barbara Sunset’ or is it a new cross and able to be registered as such.

I should point out that I don’t breed orchids and am not interested in doing so, I just illustrated the question in the first person because it’s easier to write that way.

Im just baffled by why some hybrids are so variable - like Oncostele Wildcat for example. Are all the many variations a result of many people recreating the cross but using the same name, or is it just a highly variable cross that was only made once but is inclined to have many differences when propagated ?

Cheers
Arron

[Ray]

It's simple. The cross is already registered, so any duplication gets the same name.

Yes, some crosses are highly variable, and that's where naming of cultivated varieties - cultivars - comes in; Oncostele Wildcat 'Ocelot' and Oncostele Wildcat 'Red', for example.

Think of it as a brother with straight black hair and a sister with curly brown hair.

[ArronOB]

Yep, your term ‘duplication’ expresses it very well.

So therefore all the variation we see in wildcat could come from either of two sources:
1. Duplication by another breeder, who would be highly unlikely to produce a duplicate identical to the original
2. Spontaneous variation as the crosses are reproduced, which I guess is mutation.

Does that follow?

[estación seca]

When the same two parents are used, in either combination of pod and pollen parent, the cross gets the same name. When two siblings of the same cross are themselves crossed, the progeny are still called by the same name.

Progeny may look very different, however, depending on many factors. These are not examples of mutation. They are examples of the high variability of characteristics in the genetics of most plants.

Which way the cross is made affects progeny. The pod parent often governs plant size, ease of growth and vigor. This is because almost all mitochondria come from the female parent, and mitochondria are intimately involved with energy metabolism. Flower characteristics may be inherited from different parents in different manners.

The color of the parents: A cross repeated with alba or yellow parents, when the original cross was wild-type parents, may be very different.

The chromosome counts of parents: Breeders sometimes treat plants with colchicine to produce 4N chromosome counts. Polyploid progeny often are different from euploid progeny.

Most parent individuals have high genetic variability themselves, especially if they are complex hybrids. A repeat of the original cross, even using identical parents, often leads to flowers very different from the original cross.