P. tetraspis 'C1'

[naoki]

I got this P. tetraspis 'C1' from Ten Shin Gardens in 2012, and it has been growing rapidly and seems to be flowering every 2 months. It's supposed to be the mericlone of the original 'C1'. Some people consider that this clone is P. speiciosa.

It grows well with pretty minimum light. A 24W LED grow light (the actual energy consumption is <20W), covering 2x2' area, is the only light source, and this plant is at the edge of this area.

Here is the flower from Dec. 2012:

Phalaenopsis tetraspis 'C1' normal flower with hairy lip

This is from Mar. 2013:

Phalaenopsis tetraspis 'C1'

Some of you may have noticed the weird lip this time. There were 2 flowers on a same inflorescence with this morphology. The lateral lobe doesn't have yellow color, and the middle lobe doesn't have many trichomes (hair) at the tip. Also the color of the middle lobe is different with white stripes. Here is the magnified view (with lateral lobe removed):

Phalaensopsis tetraspis 'C1', middle lobe of the lip

So this trait may be infleunced by the growing condition/environment or it is developmentally unstable. I thought this is interesting, but this happened only once so far.

You can also see 2 sets of callus. The front callus is on top of the black paper. I believe Eric Christenson's book (Amazon.com: Phalaenopsis: A Monograph (9781604691719): Eric Christenson: Books) mentions that P. speciosa has 2 sets and P. tetraspis has 3 sets of callus. So 'C1' is closer to P. speciosa. But I've heard that most of typical P. tetraspis (white flowers with or without small red bars) available for horticulture has only 2 sets.

In July 2013, the plant made flowers with more red, and some flowers were completely red. I'm wondering if heat causes expression of red. The lip was normal.

Phalaenopsis tetraspis 'C1', red flower


Phalaenopsis tetraspis 'C1'

It's an interesting plant, even though the origin of this clone is not completely known. Some people think that it is a hybrid. So I made self-pollination.