cattleya?

[agarrat]

help with name

[flowerchild]

it looks like a cat to me.

[janet_a]

ooh pretty.

seriously though, it's pretty much impossible to ID an untagged plant. just enjoy it.

[jerrymeola]

It is impossible to ID a Cattleya (and most orchids) from a photo. The same two parents of this hybrid can produce other colors.

a x b can be this color or yellow. You would think they were two different orchids from the photo but they would be the same.

A less drastic example is the following orchid photo grouping



Note that the 8/28 photos had two different colors on the same plant on the same day. I have had this plant for years it is not two plants in one pot.

[Ellen]

There are so many lavender catts, both species and hybrids, that all look similar that there's no way anyone could ID yours from a photo. It's beautiful, though, so just enjoy it!

Just as a caution to those who care about their orchids' pedigrees (and we all do, sooner or later, if we keep growing them), avoid buying NoID plants, and make sure that all plants' tags stay in their pots and are replaced if they start disintegrating or becoming illegible. When you have 10 orchids, you may think you will remember all the details, but once those have multiplied exponentially, as they often do, you will probably not remember every individual in your collection.

Part of the fun of growing orchids is relating their ancestry with what they turn out to be - looking at genetics in action. I believe the plant that Jerry shows, Blc Golden Tang, is related to one that I have blooming now, Pot Hoku Gem through a common ancestor (Bl Richard Mueller) that changes color. The Hoku gem flowers start out dark red and gradually change to orange, then yellow. By the end it looks like a different orchid!

[prisana]

When I first started getting into orchids, I bought so many noid plants I didn't know what to tag them as. After much serching, I just gave up and started giving them nicknames on the tag !! I've stopped buying plants without tags soon as I found out how important they are. Your (catt?) is beautiful, it must have not minded being nameless. P.S. Have you tried looking around in S. American orchid sites ? Even if you don't get the exact answer, you might get a general idea of what it is.

[kmarch]

I agree with what everyone has said about how difficult/impossible it is to identify untagged plants (noids). However I am quite sure that the plant in question here is a Cattleya bowringiana hybrid, possibly a primary hybrid. The lip configuration makes me think it is not a species (although it is possible this is simply a pale-lipped one), but the flowering habit and flower form do indicate very strong bowringiana influence.