I love this species too, Bob, wherever the taxonomists move it. I've got three or four clones and always will. The flower is beautiful, but I'd grow it for the fragrance alone. Whenever one flowers, it comes up to the house for a few days. I need to check - I know I bought a small var. fimbripetala a couple of years ago, but I don't recall seeing that pot recently ... Ssteve On 6/22/2021 12:13 PM, Robert Lauf via pbs wrote: > OK, this isn't a geophyte. So sue me. This is a cool thing known to every orchidist: the plant formerly known as Brassavola digbyana, before the splitters removed digbyana and glauca to a new pigeonhole. Of course, this taxonomic revision occurred after a hundred years of hybridization, as breeders found early on that it is broadly compatible with other members of the Cattleya alliance and is responsible for the spectacular "brasso lip" on many large corsage orchids. The hybrids might be Brassolaelia, Brassolaeliocattleya, Potinara, etc. Then just to further liven the discussion, the lumpers proposed that most of the Cattleya alliance are all Catts, so Laelia, Sophronitis, and other genera were eliminated. > The registration authorities recognized that somehow redoing a century of orchid pedigrees was impossible, and adopted the position that for registration purposes, the old names would be used. So when you buy a big bold orchid that has Blc. in its name, this bad boy is in the mix. > As to the plant itself: Like many green- or white-flowered orchids, it is pollinated at night, and the strong lemony fragrance turns on and off like clockwork. At night the perfume will fill a room. The specimen shown is the rare 'fimbripetala' variety, in which the whiskery theme on the lip is continued on the petals. The effect is pretty cool. The foliage is thick, succulent, and very leathery so not surprisingly it wants a LOT of light. I grow in chunks of coco husk on the south wall of my already brutally hot greenhouse, next to the Rhy. glauca and the more light-loving bifoliate Catts. It seems to enjoy it there. > Anyway, not a bulb but I know some of our members grow some orchids, too, so I decided to share this picture. > Bob Zone 7 cooler today after 2" of rain last night > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Rhy. digbyana v fimbripetala.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 4258673 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
