Paph question

[sushiboy]

Hi. was going thru's some paph photos and i came across this thread

http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...ed-pepper.html

can someone please tell me why is it that the flowers look so different given that they have the same crossings? thanks and cheers.

[cindiras]

If they were SEEDLINGS, you will get a lot of color variation. Think of it, millions of tiny seeds, each with it's own version of he parents combined genetic code. Yeah, many will be similar, even identical, but there are going to be those who are a little on the 'wild side'!

[Ron-NY]

Just like 2 human parents. All of their children don't look identical.

[Orchidzrule]

Cindi & Ron are quite right about the variation seedlings can display. This is all the more so when the parents are hybrids. Primary hybrids--where each parent is a species--tend to be less variable. Now divisions of either of these two plants of course, should produce flowers identical to the original.

Cheers,
Rob

[sushiboy]

hi and thanks for response.

does it mean then that we are not able to identify the plant by just looking at the flowers alone? always thought that, like trees and shrubs, the flowers were identical for a particular species and plants could be identified by just looking at the flowers......

[terenh]

we can only do that with plants and animals that are purely that species. since we are dealing with hybrids, two difference species mix, then it is more difficult. it is kind of like breeding homo sapiens with neanderthals, it may be the same genus, homo, however you get something neither really human nor neanderthal. so with that logic paphiopedilum is the genus and the species is another name, thus when you mix two difference species, then you get something not one or the other, BUT it is still a paphiopedilum. i hope that makes sense!