[littlefrog]

Phal. aphrodite, amabilis, schilleriana, and stuartiana have all been extensively line bred in recent decades, if I recall correctly. Some to the point where you probably wouldn't recognize them if compared to a jungle plant. And that is just the 'showy' species that I can remember off the top of my head.

I think that for your typical 'walmart' application, mostly you will see hybrids sold. That is what the breeders are pumping out the most of. But, good phal breeders (I'm not a phal breeder...) should also be doing some selective breeding of species to improve their breeding stock. And the 'real orchid collectors' are always looking for species orchids, so there is a non-trivial market for 'improved' phalaenopsis species. I actually saw a beautiful collection of Phal. aphrodite at one of those big box stores a year or so ago, so even species are sold that way. I should have bought some...

I agree that most awards are to hybrids, and I'll be interested to see the percentages when you look them up, Phantasm. But we get species phals into our judging center, and award them fairly frequently. We probably shouldn't get into the argument about whether line breeding species is really 'improving' things or not, though.