A peeve

Posted on April 29th, 2008 in market, collecting by paphinessorchids

What really bugs me are orchid ads I see claiming that such and such species are rare, when in fact, they are very, very common. For example, I recently saw a P. delenatii in bloom listed as a “rare” orchid. Nothing could be further from the truth. P. delenatii has got to be one of the most common orchids available commercially. Now, the alba form might have been considered rare a few years ago, but these days, it is at best “not often seen”. You can get fine examples of this form from many excellent growers (yes, we have a few at Paphiness Orchids).

There is a variant of P. delenatii that is indeed what I would call “rare”. The var. dunkel (meaning “dark” in German) has leaves with very heavy pigmentation, and the edges are dark purple, nearly black. But sooner or later, they will not be rare as breeders produce more and more of them.

In a future posting, I’ll go through what plants are truly rare.

Another split face mutant

Posted on April 21st, 2008 in mutants by paphinessorchids

Here’s another mutant from a recent white complex cross out of the Orchid Zone. The cross is called “Icy Icy Wind”, but this particular specimen has some interesting stuff going on, reminiscent of the ‘freak’ described here.

icy-icy-wind-split-face.jpg

This one is a little different from the ‘freak’, though. ‘Freak’ was clearly an example of sectoral chimerism, and you could see the different pigmentation effects on the leaves. It seems to me that ‘Freak’ was lucky to have the color split right down the middle. I don’t think the color will be split in the same spot on future bloomings, and the pigmentation patterns on the leaf would support that view.

This mutant P. Icy Icy Wind seems to me like it could actually be a germline mutation that might continue to breed this way. In ‘Freak’, it was presence of a layer of pigmented cells that happened to not be present on exactly half the flower (and the rest of the plant tissue for that growth). Here, nothing on the leaves or spike betrays any sectoral chimerism, and the difference has to do with the intensity of pigmentation rather than presence or absence.

Anyways, I’m just speculating here — we’ll know when it blooms again. (Thanks to SK at the Orchid Zone for the pic!)