Peloric Phalaenopsis ?s - Orchid Board

aliceinwl · #1 02-09-2018, 01:56 AM

I have this Phalaenopsis that I purchased with about 50% of the flowers open and the other 50% that I thought were just starting to open. It's been close to a month and those "partially open" flowers haven't changed. I realized today, that the "partially open" flowers are peloric.

I'm not finding the peloric flowers on this plant attractive. When it reblooms, will it still have a large proportion of peloric flowers, or is there a chance that the next spike will be normal?

There's another Palaenopsis at the grocery store that has the wavy edged flat peloric petals. Of its open flowers, all are peloric except two. Of those two, one is normal and one is half peloric (not symetric, 1/2 normal, 1/2 peloric). Same question: is this a stable trait, will the next spike have the same features? I like the peloric and normal flowers on this plant, but the half and half flower is "ugly".

camille1585 · #2 02-09-2018, 03:22 AM

Unfortunately peloric Phals can go both ways next time it blooms. It could have been a freak occurrence in this particular plant due to environmental conditions or stress, and then bloom normally next time. Or it could very well be a more permanent genetic mutation, appearing at each blooming.

You'll have to wait and see what it does next time it blooms.

aliceinwl · #3 02-09-2018, 11:09 AM

Thanks! If there’s a chance this isn’t permanent, I’ll keep it and hope it blooms normally on the next go around.

DeaC · #4 02-09-2018, 12:07 PM

Personally,I'd pay xtra for pelorics. Just my thing.

jkofferdahl · #5 02-09-2018, 05:47 PM

I like peloric Phals. I have an equestris which is very stable, bloom after bloom, and these blooms are exceptionally beautiful. On the other hand, a cornu cervi v. flava is somewhat unstable, at times giving me both peloric and non-peloric blooms on the same spike - a trait I find to be charming. About a year ago Peter Lin sent me photos of one of his plants where flowers were bilaterally peloric - by which I mean that one half of the flower, one petal, showed peloric traits while the other petal was normal. In my view these are all delightful flowers.

greenpassion · #6 02-09-2018, 06:12 PM

Forgive me for jumping in here, but I thought that peloric phals are ones that have a bloom open then 'go by' as the second one opens. So if I understand this correctly, peloric means 'partially opened'?

Roberta · #7 02-09-2018, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenpassion

Forgive me for jumping in here, but I thought that peloric phals are ones that have a bloom open then 'go by' as the second one opens. So if I understand this correctly, peloric means 'partially opened'?

"Peloric" means that the lip pattern is repeated in the petals. Lately there are some phals that are "reverse peloric" meaning that the petal pattern is repeated in the lip. The peloric character may interfere with opening fully, or not. It can lead to some weird-looking flowers, that can be really attractive, but after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

greenpassion · #8 02-09-2018, 06:28 PM

Thank you for clearing that up Roberta.

And Alice, can you post some pics? I'm really interested to see what your describing. ?

aliceinwl · #9 02-10-2018, 02:39 AM

Hopefully this works. The first one that looks like it’s partially open is my plant. The second two are of the plant I was describing at the grocery store. Personally, I like the fully peloric flowers on the one at the grocery store, but am not fond of the pelorics that present like mine.

Subrosa · #10 02-10-2018, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

I like peloric Phals. I have an equestris which is very stable, bloom after bloom, and these blooms are exceptionally beautiful. On the other hand, a cornu cervi v. flava is somewhat unstable, at times giving me both peloric and non-peloric blooms on the same spike - a trait I find to be charming. About a year ago Peter Lin sent me photos of one of his plants where flowers were bilaterally peloric - by which I mean that one half of the flower, one petal, showed peloric traits while the other petal was normal. In my view these are all delightful flowers.

Orchid flowers normally possess bilateral symmetry, like people do. A straight line bisecting either at the proper place produces 2 (for all intents and purposes) identical mirror images. A peloric bloom on an orchid possesses radial symmetry, like a starfish. It has mirror images arranged radially around a central point, normally in multiples of 5 for the starfish and multiples of 3 for orchids. I would LOVE to see a pic of a bloom that can't decide which it wants to be!