Do cattleya have eyes

[Rick Barber]

I read somewhere that Cattleya have front and back eyes. I looked at mine pretty good by removing some potting materal and did not see much except the rhizome and a new growth on two of them. Can someone set me straight on what to look for.

[Ron-NY]

the eyes look like a scale and is usually located at the base of a growth. Catts usually have two "eyes" the leading growth comes from one eye and the second eye usually remains dormant. It is nature's way of providing continual growth if something should happen to the front lead. One way of making a clone of a Catt would be to cut through the rhizome. This should stimulate a "back eye" (meaning an eye on a back growth, behind your cut) to be stimulated to develop into a new lead. I have never really looked for them but the above info if from memory of a diagram I had seen in a book. I have taken back bulb divisions and they eventually develop a front lead, the majority of the time.

[Phyrex]

Rick you probably looked when it had its eyes closed, Catts tend to be sneaky like that. When they were abducted by aliens in the earlier days the aliens installed hidden cameras, or "eyes", in order to monitor the treatment of Catts by homo sapiens. So far no one has been punished yet for treating the Catts badly; my guess is that orchid people are very gentle with their baby Catts so there will be no need for any punishment.

Besides the above, yeah what Ron said. Most of the time these "eyes" "scales" are covered by the pseudo-bulb wrap to protect them. When the Catt feels it necessary to use the "dormant eye" it will break through the wrap and start to grow.

[ischel1]

Didn't take your meds again this morning did ya Richard???????

[Ron-NY]

I prefer the middle one for my pseudobulb wrap

[gbrice]

I prefer the one on the left, I like how the orange and lilac set off from the more subdue colors.

[Cjcorner]

Somebody should take their meds....lol
Connie

[wetfeet101b]

This article touches on the topic of foliar buds (eyes).

Article Link

[gbrice]

This article touches on the topic of foliar buds (eyes).

Article Link

Great article John, nice job.

-g

[Rick Barber]

Would keiki paste on the rhizome make eyes for growth to make flowers.