Catasetum pileatum - showing male and female flowers

[catttan]

Rarely do we get to see the female flowers because 90% of the time the plant produces male flowers, which is very fortunate for us growers, as the female flowers are downright ugly. Female flowers occur when the temperature rises higher than the norm while the plant is spiking and the flower buds are forming. Normally the pileatum spikes from mid June when the cooler weather starts nut this year it spiked in March at the height of the hot spell, thus the formation of the female flowers.

I am posting pictures of both the male and female flowers. No need to label the pictures as they are self-explanatory. The pictures of the male flowers are from last year's blooms.