Laelia purpurata - Queen of orchids
My plant has a lot of names on the label - L.purpurata var Roda-Cereja ( which I think means cherry or cerise in English ) x L.purpurata var carnea "W.da Silva"
Now I do have a copy of Menezes book illustrating and describing 250 different varieties of L.purpurata - which is obviously written by a great enthusiast, who unfortuately seems to have no scientific training or sense of logic. There is no proper index, and what seems to be the same flower colouration is described under several different names, and some of the names are nonsense - see the supposed aurea versions. So lets forget all this varietal name
nonsense, its just a nice L.purpurata....
Two growths, one with 2 flowers, the other with 3. Has made a decent showing since it was repotted into S/H just 12 months ago, after being too wet- as explained by me, too often, I'm sure. I'm dubious about its lasting quality , this year at least ; on Tuesday I looked at the tight closed buds, and decided it would not be open by the week-end, so did not send it off with my other plants to a Society display on Saturday . This morning ( Thursday) I noticed the flowers were open, and a pure white with a dark contrasting lip. Tonight I fetched it in to photograph, and hey , the petals have developed colour striations, and the dark lip has faded - at this rate it will be over by the week-end !.
In the meantime I have put it on my breakfast table to enjoy it whilst its here. You folks - enjoy it too !
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