NOT Cycnoches Anne-Kathrin Berger

[serama]

I bought a number of small Cycnoches species and hybrid seedlings last year and this is the first one to bloom. It's still a pretty small plant, so I'm hoping for spikes that are two to three times as long on a fully grown plant. I took the pictures while the sun was setting, which has enhanced the yellow colour of the flowers, but they really are more coppery than they appear in the pictures, particularly on the back of the petals/sepals.

I'm really happy with this little fella but, as you can guess from the title, it turned out to be something different from what it was supposed to be. I hate it when that happens. It should have been Cyc. Anne-Kathrin Berger (Cyc. pentadactylon x Cyc. herrenhusamum), but the flowers are too full, lack the spots from the Cyc. pentadactylum parent or the appendages on the lip that both parents have. It's more similar to Cyc. Golden Showers or Cyc. Kevin Clarke, except that my flowers have some dark spotting in the centre, which means that they can't be either of these (all the parents involved in these crosses are white/green or yellow and lack purple pigments, so can't produce spotted or dark flowers). My plant is more likely a second generation hybrid with one of these two hybrids and a another one that has some Cyc. cooperi in the background ... any help at identification is highly welcome.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Sorry it isn't what you expected - but WOW it is a stunning orchid regardless. Love the blooms on this one.

cheers,
BD

[Halloamey]

I would also go with Golden showers or Kevin Clarke. Whatever it is it is very beautiful.

[mauraec]

Beautiful color - i can't even think of the right words to describe it - it's yellow, but green-cast and not really chartreuse.... Maybe someone better with words can chime in.

[zainal abidin]

Sorry to hear that but it is very beautiful one.

[catttan]

A Cycnodes Jumbo Puff perhaps - with that full shape?

[serama]

Yew,

Jumbo Puff does indeed have a nice full shape, but it's a Cycnodes, a hybrid between Cycnoches and Mormodes. You can easily tell them apart because the flowers of Cycnoches are always non-resupinate (the labellum points upwards instead of downwards), the labellum is in the same plane as the rest of the flowers and the column is slender and long (resembling a swan neck, which is where the greek name Cychnoches comes from), whereas in Cychnodes the flowers are resupinate (the labellum points downwards) or grow at weird angles (the result of crossing the resupinate Cycnoches and the non-resupinate Mormodes), the labellum is very wide, flat and sticks out at 90 degrees from the sepals and petals and the column is much shorter and fat (all of which are traits inherited from the Mormodes parent).

I think I'll have to get myself some Cychnodes and Mormodes in the future, the only one I have right now is a seedling of Cycnodes Wine Delight "JEM", which will have stunning burgundy coloured flowers ... if it turns out to actually be that plant. :o)