Meaning of "cv"
 

What does "cv." mean, when used in a species name?

Normally that should be cultivar.

Originally I think it was derived from cultivated variety and shortened to cultivar. Generally the cultivar name in enclosed in single quotations.
Example: C. Bow Bells 'Snowflake' FCC/AOS

Oh I see -- thanks for that. Have always wondered what the single quotes meant.

Have been pursuing orchids with my camera for nigh unto 6 y. now, accumulating quite a few. Starting to get them better organized on my computer storage. Will try to arrange them all into taxonomically correct folder trees/branches.

Whenever I need info on the ancestral chain of a species, I have found Wikipedia to be very helpful. Is that a well vetted source for this purpose? Or would you recommend another?

The following links are to the RHS that might be a bit better than Wiki.
The International Orchid Register / RHS Gardening This will check parentage.
The International Orchid Register / RHS Gardening This will check for seed and pod parents.
Joann

Thanks.

Generally speaking, a cultivar is just that - a cultivated variety. Meaning that it doesn't exist in nature per se. It could be the result of crossing two naturally occurring varieties of a species. An example would be Laelia anceps cv. Pink Perfection, which is a cross between a white and a pink form of the species. Or it could be the result of a line-bred species to where the grower has decided to give a name to it.

Name "Cultivate" of Species and botanical variety
Any cultivation of a particular species, or even natural variants and their offspring produced vegetatively (cut from the plant or meriste-
ma), that is, a clone, or collected in nature, either created by man, can be identified by the addition of "cultivar epithet" to its name.


The cultivar epithet is a fantasy name, i.e. not in Latin form and written in Roman, always starting with letter e in single quotation marks (' ... '). Should not be used in double quotation marks. When added to the specific name of a species is the third term, but when added to the varietal name of a botanical variety, becomes the fourth term. In both cases constitutes the "cultivar name" of a particular plant.


Example: Laelia anceps ' Mistral ' is the name of the species Laelia anceps, cultivation of which ' Mistral ' is the cultivar epithet.
Another example: Cymbidium lowianum var. concolor ' Picardy ' is a cultivar name cultivate botanical variety of Cymbidium lowianum var. concolor, which ' Picardy ' is the cultivar epithet.

I hope I have helped
Hugs

Yes very helpful, many thanks. I just returned from your neighbor Ecuador two weeks of orchid photography. Came close to Brazil, heard lots about your orchids.

Minor nitpick here: single quotes after a species or grex name denote a clone, not a cultivar. A clone is an individual plant and all its divisions and meristem props, whereas a cultivar is a strain or semi-stable population in cultivation. As nikv said, this would be used in the case of a strain that doesn't exist naturally; if it did it would be called a variety (formally described as a distinct population) or form (used to indicate things like color variations that don't merit varietal status e.g., fma coerulea). This is all based on my conversations with other orchidists, reading of a few books, etc., so please point out anything I've misrepresented! :)

--Nat