Miltonia moreliana alba
Rarely seen-the alba form of this species. An unfamiliar name anyway ? Well, for most of my orchid life it was Oncidium spectabilis, variety moreliana, but in rare example of splitting - instead of the lumping which they do all the time - botanists decided that it is a species in its own right.
Whatever. I had never seen it , never heard of it. Then on a nursery visit, I saw it in flower ( in Brazil, this was). Nursery visits are great, so much better than buying from lists ! You get to see stuff they don't list for whatever reason, and if you are nice, and reasonable , they remember you when they pack your order, and make sure you get specially good stuff ; so I tell myself - and that justifies spending ten times as much as the plants on the air-fare etc., to get there , and hey - I'll tell you a secret ! - you can't take it with you, they say ( I mean the dosh, dollars, moolah etc - and with you, merans on that journey every one of us is going to take one day - and that is not to Brazil either.....
But , getting my boots back on earth, it is a nice addition to my collection. I have a couple of plants of the ordinary, no-alba kind, one just opening one flower, and the other being nursed carefully has six spikes with several buds per spike ; may be good for our Autumn (Fall, to you) shows at the end of this month and early next month. Or not, as fate decides.
btw if you don't know this , it is a big flower 17 cm from tip to toe.
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Gorgeous flower Geoff!
