Slang/term |
Meaning |
AM |
“Award of Merit”; award indicating flowers of very high quality; may be seen following the species or grex name |
AOS |
abbreviation for the American Orchid Society or Australian Orchid Society (there may be many more) |
balanced fertilizer |
fertilizer in which the N-P-K ratio is the same for all 3 (for example 10-10-10) |
Bare root |
orchid without a pot or any media; state in which some people ship orchids in order to minimize shipping costs (among other reasons) |
Blast or
Bud blast |
the sudden demise of a flower bud, typically characterized by a developing bud shriveling and/or yellowing |
BS |
blooming size |
bulldog |
paph hybrids w/ large, round heavy-substance large-dorsal sepal flowers (aka complex hybrids) |
cane |
pb of dens which tend to be tall/long/cane like |
CCM and
CCE |
Certificate of Cultural Merit and Certificate of Cultural Excellence (the 2nd being the higher award); award given to robust, well flowered specimen plant |
cfl |
compact fluorescent light |
chid |
orchid |
clonal name |
name following the species or grex name to indicate a particularly noteworthy specimen; all clones of such a specimen will bear that same clonal name; this name is always written in single quotation marks – not the normal double marks |
CMV |
cymbidium mosaic virus |
coir |
medium made up of coconut fibers |
compact |
size term referring to plants which will be anywhere from 6-12 inches (15.24-30cm) in height from the base of the pb to the tip of the longest leaf in a mature plant |
compot |
“community pot”; pot containing many seedlings |
cross |
refers to the breeding or “crossing” of two orchids |
crown |
top of an orchid stem; especially that of monopodial orchids like phals |
crown rot |
bacterial or fungal disease which manifests in the plants crown |
cultivar |
see “clonal name” |
div |
division |
dorsal |
topmost sepal (commonly, though erroneously, also called a “petal”) - most often used in discussions regarding slipper orchids |
epiphyte |
a plant which grows completely upon another plant, using that plant for support—typically so it can grow in a sunnier location |
flask |
glass jar/container used as a “nursery” for the development of very small/young seedlings |
flasking |
process of preparing a flask and “seeding it” with either orchid seeds or protocorms for development into seedlings |
FCC |
First Class Certificate: award indicating flowers of the highest quality; may be seen following the species or grex name |
genera |
not a slang term but rather the correct plural of genus (there is no such word as "genuses" ) |
G/H or gh |
greenhouse |
grex |
the group or hybrid name given to the progeny of a certain cross |
hard cane dens |
dens typically with harder, thinner canes; these form long spikes with many flowers at the top of the cane |
HCC |
Highly Commended Certificate; award indicating flowers of high quality; may be seen following the species or grex name |
HCM |
Horticultural Certificate of Merit; awarded to a well grown and well flowered plant |
horticultural grade |
reference to products safe for use with plants (example – charcoal made for use in grills is NOT horticultural grade) |
keiki |
properly pronounced KAY-kee; a small plantlet formed on the "mother" plant; a form of asexual reproduction |
lip |
one of 6 prominent floral structures, this modified petal is often (but not always) larger or vastly different in appearance from the other petals or from the sepals |
lithophyte |
plant which grows on rocks or rocky outcroppings (like cliff sides) |
LS or
ls |
leaf span; the span of two adjacent leaves from leaf tip to leaf tip (often seen on vendors sites carrying Paphs and Phrags) |
mealies |
mealybugs (insect pest covered w/ a white cottony substance) |
mini |
size related term, properly only referring to those orchids that as mature plants are no more than 6 inches (15.24cm) in total height from the base of the pb to the tip of the longest leaf; NOTE: many vendors erroneously apply this term to plants that are much taller (not true minis) |
monopodial |
literally “one foot”; growth habit in orchids like phals and vandas which grow continually as a single upright stem |
NBS |
near blooming size |
Noid or NOID or NoID |
no ID; any orchid whose correct species or hybrid name is unknown |
NPK or N-P-K |
the 3 main elements found in fertilizers: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium |
ORSV |
odontoglossum ringspot virus |
pb or p-bulb |
pseudobulb; the rounded/bulbous-shaped stem found in some orchid genera (like catts or cyms) |
pot bound |
plant whose roots have completely filled its pot – often the roots completely circle the inside of the pot |
potting up |
moving the plant up to the next larger plant size when repotting |
primary hybrid |
hybrid resulting from the crossing of two species |
protocorm |
undifferentiated mass of tissue formed from an orchid seed or from meristematic tissue (used in cloning process) that can give rise to new plants |
RH or R/H |
relative humidity |
RHS |
Royal Horticultural Society |
RO |
reverse osmosis (a method of water purification) |
root bound |
see “pot bound” |
sdlg |
seedling |
sepals |
the 3 outer “petals” (greatly simplified definition -- botanically there is really is more to it) |
s/h or SH |
semihydroponic (a method of orchid culture) |
sheath |
a leaf like "envelope" through which flower buds emerge; common with cattleyas |
slipper |
refers to paphs, phrags, or cyps due to their “slipper” shaped lip |
soft cane den
(nobile type) |
dens w/ typically thicker, softer (almost succulent like) canes; these form clusters of flowers (often of 1-3 in #) on very short spikes &/or keikis at the nodes along the cane |
specimen or
specimen-size |
“large” multigrowth plant (*Note: Large in this case is referring not to size of individual growths but to the entire mass/multitude of growths taken as a whole and is a relative term dependent on the size/type of plant -- for some of the truly tiny minis, a mass the size of a teacup could very well be “specimen-size.” ) |
sphag |
sphagnum moss |
sphag ‘n bag |
individual ICU devised to save an ailing/expiring orchid by means of enclosing it in plastic with damp sphagnum moss |
spike |
the flower stalk of an orchid;
also the act of forming a flower stalk |
sponge rock |
perlite |
standard |
size term referring to mature plants which will be over 12 inches (30.5cm) tall from base of the pb to the tip of the longest leaf |
steppers |
plant growth habit in which each new pb is above the height of the previous pb (like the steps on a staircase); not a commonly used term |
tc |
tissue culture; method of cloning a plant |
TMV |
tobacco mosaic virus |
toad |
see “bulldog”; another term used for complex paph hybrids due to common presences of “warts” on sepals/petals |
UFO |
Unidentified Flowering Orchid (a nontraditional equivalent to NOID that some folks favor as an amusing, whimsical alternative to NOID) |
var. |
variety/variant (indicates a different, naturally occurring color variation of a species) |
weekly/weakly |
term pertaining to a generally advised watering/fertilizing schedule for orchids |
|
|
|
Common Shorthand for Particular Orchid Genera |
asco |
ascocentrum |
bulbo |
bulbophyllum |
catt |
cattleya |
cym |
cymbidium |
cyp |
cypripedium |
den |
dendrobium |
drac |
dracula |
enc |
encyclia |
epi |
epidendrum |
masdie |
masdevallia |
max |
maxillaria |
onc |
oncidium |
paph |
paphiopedilum |
phal |
phalanopsis |
phrag |
phragmipedium |
pleuro |
pleurothallid |
|
*Last update: 04.April.2013 |