(now) Oncidium Zoe's Fire ( was a Wilsonara before Kew ran riot)
A young plant, flowering on its second bulb. Will do much better when it is a properly grown up plant !
Once upon a time, when the world was young , there were Odontoglossums, grouped together as O.crispum, which were nicely rounded flowers say 3 inches or so across. Pure white was the ideal, but blotches of colour were seen, usually purples, sometimes even yellow patches.
Orchid growers being what they are, they were not satisfied with them and wanted red ones. A sister genus, Cochlioda, has an all red one - with quite small flowers - C.noezliana, and the two crossed together produced the worlds first red "odontoglossums" called Odontiodas.Te first few crosses had rather small flowers, too.
Not all the progeny were red, btw. Successive crossing back and forth ended up producing flowers like this one - getting on for 3 inches across.
Adding a dash of oncidium blood, in an attempt to increase the number of flowers on the stem produces a Wilsonara , but the first crosses again were very poor - neither one thing nor the other. By the time successive generations had got back to a decent shape, it is only in the name Wilsonara, and not in any actual shape, size or other characteristic, that they can be considered any different from the Odas.
And then Kew comes along and says that when we look at the DNA, and show it on a chart which they have invented called a clade diagram, which no-one can understand ( except the clever chaps at Kew) , why there is no difference at all, they are all Oncidiums.
If they go on like this, we shall end up with just one genus - Oncidium. Forget Vanda, forget Cattleya - they are all oncidiums... If it wasn't so daft it would make you weep . As it is I can only laugh at them. Call themselves scientists do they ? No wonder the man in the street thinks all scientists are mad.
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