Quote:
Originally Posted by Dollythehun
OK. Here is my learning opportunity. What feature of the any did you base that on? The pbibs looked very round to me but other than that...
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I've been "into orchids" for over 20 years now, but it doesn't take nearly long to develop an eye for general IDs, especially within the groups that you have an interest in. You learn from reading (online, books, other materials) and from visiting society meetings, orchid shows, and things of that nature. Flowers are the best/most accurate indicator to use for identification, although other clues like foliage and psuedobulb shape, color, size, as well as characteristics of the roots such as thickness and tip color, can help with ID.
In this specific case...
The first plant's flowers are very clearly dominated by the species named Rhynchostele bictoniensis, which has a fairly distinct and unique lip shape (heart/spade). It's a species that is very popular in hybridization and one that I know tends to have a dominant effect in its hybrids. From there I looked up some photos of its intergeneric hybrids, compared the flowers, foliage, and bulbs, and then made a reasonable guess at the "line" of breeding it may have come from.
In the other plant, the Brassia influence is unmistakable. Long, narrow petals, enlongated lip. Muted green, beige, cream colors with chocolate spots and bars. The psuedobulbs are also quite oblong and tall with wide leaves. All sure signs that the plant contains a lot of Brassia in its background. Now it's clearly a hybrid because it doesn't look (to me) like any of the known species. It may be an intergeneric hybrid, since there are lots of crosses where they've taken existing Brassia intergenerics and hybridized them back onto a Brassia, leaving a very heavily Brassia dominated flower with just a slight influence from other genera (Oncidium, Miltonia, Odontoglossum, etc). But it could just as easily be a straight Brassia hybrid. However, without a tag or very extensive knowledge of the hybrids and various clones it's really impossible to conclude much more than that.
---------- Post added at 04:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by rbarata
And mine too! 
How do you differentiate it from a cambria? |
Honestly, the term Cambria, as commonly used by a lot of growers and even some vendors, is so diluted and ambiguous now, as to be useless (just an opinion). It does have a specific, accepted meaning -- it's just that the term has been misapplied and misused so broadly that the original meaning is basically lost.
As used in the context of orchids, Cambria in its purest form refers to a specific intergeneric hybrid that contains several Oncidium alliance genera
see wikipedia.
However, there a number of intergeneric hybrids that have been registered with variations of the name Cambria (Vuylstekeara Cambria being an example), and even more hybrids with clonal names that are variations of Cambria (can't recall which hybrids, but a fake example would be something like Colmanara Wildcat 'Cambria').
Over time, however, what's happened is that the term has become used more and more loosely to the point where it's now used almost synonymously with Oncidium Intergeneric Hybrid, and I'd be surprised if you found 2 people that would agree on exactly which plants are and aren't "Cambrias".
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