| pikevi,
It can be difficult to tell non-blooming orchids apart. However, (and i may be over generalizing a bit here) one can frequently tell what alliance a plant is from or in some cases which genus it is from by looking at the plant habit.
You've probably noticed in some threads where people are asking for an ID, that we'll say someting like, "You've got some kind of Oncidium," but we can't be more specific than that. There are groups of plants (usuallt related genera) that have similar plant habits. An example of this would be Cattleya, Laelia, Sophronites, and their hybrids (Lc, Sc, Sl, Slc). Their plant habits are all similar and so we often say, "It's some type of Cattleya," or, "It's a Cattleya alliance," or, "Cattleya-type" plant. It can be difficult to be more specific.
Maybe we should post some sort of plant habit tutorial thread. Would members find that useful?
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