Catasetum splendens (I'm stumped!)

[nancy]

Hello -
A bit of weirdness here - these flowers have just finished opening; I thought, because the buds were so very green, that the flowers would be female (last blooming was male flowers), but now that they're opened, I see that they are male. Now the weird part - the last flowers were very pink, including off-white sepals, with the petals red-spotted and the lip also pinkish-white with a very yellow center.
I have close-up photos of the flowers, if anyone is totally enthralled, but you can see looking at the two inflorescences that this year's flowers are a different color. They are also conspicuously larger...any speculation as to the reason for this? It is absolutely, positively the same plant. Only difference I can think of is that some randy insect triggered all of the pollinia before I took last year's photo.
As a point of interest: there is also a hybrid, Cstm. Splendens, which is macrocarpum x pileatum. I believe that mine is the species (I got it from someone with English as a 2nd language, but that was my understanding).
Tricho, or someone slightly more expert - opinion?
Cheers - Nancy

[Frdemetr]

Nancy,

In RHS, Catasetum Splendens = Catasetum macrocarpum X Catasetum imperiale

Royal Horticultural Society - Plants: The International Orchid Register

[nancy]

Hi Frederico -
I didn't check the RHS, but wildcatt has macrocarpum x pileatum. I look up a lot on RHS, but for shows and such here, you need to know if a plant has any kind of AOS awards. Hmmm, just re-checked, and wildcatt does have macrocarpum x pileatum, but also says Thompson, 1994, as does RHS.
If I had to bet, I'd put money on the RHS info, though I've never found any other errors in wildcatt.
I will add this info to my file. And look up photos of all!
Regards - Nancy

[cb977]

Checked in Orchidwiz, found something odd:
they have two entries for Ctsm splendens which is nothing unusual but the first one comes up as:

Catasetum tapiriceps (Catasetum macrocarpum x Catasetum pileatum)

the second:

Catasetum Splendens (Catasetum macrocarpum x Catasetum imperiale)

[euplusia]

Catasetum imperiale is closely related to Catasetum pileatum. As there are lumbers and slumbers, some people separate it from pileatum, while others (Linden & Cogniaux) consider it a mere variety. Catasetum pileatum is widespread through Venezuela (former National flower) into Brasil, while Catasetum imperiale is restricted to a narrow habitat. Catasetum pileatum has white to greenish flowers, while the flowers of Ctsm. imperiale are red - imperialis means "as an emperor", because the sign of imperial power in ancient Rome was the red overcoat.

In nature Catasetum pileatum hybridizes easily with Catasetum macrocarpum, and the offsping is a huge grex in splendid forms and colours. This grex is called xtapiriceps, and xsplendens is a synonym. So if you received your plant from somebody, who knows that it once was taken from nature, it doesn´t mean it is a species - it is probably a natural hybrid.

I once had the chance to discuss the topic with Alexis Pardo Isla from Venezuela, when he came to hold a picture show on Catasetums in Germany. He believes that all colours in Catasetum pileatum and imperiale are influenced by Catasetum macrocarpum. But over centuries a new population can stabilize and become a new species.
As for your observation of varying colours of flowers: Fertilization, nutrition with trace elements and ultraviolet light play an important rule in colour expression. I´ve seen unbelievable effects in flowers of Odontoglossum hallii.
Male flowers have two bristles or antennae, whereas female flowers have a stigmatic cavity or cleft.

[nancy]

From what I can determine, the RHS considers pileatum and imperiale as two distinct Catasetum species, whereas AOS, wildcatt, etc. regard them as synonyms.

Note follows from Jay Pfahl. I'm sure we all consult his spectacular website regularly and with great amounts of sweat and saliva:

Dear Nancy,
By species they just meant that it was taken from
nature, it is still a
cross between macrocarpum & pileatum, albeit a natural
one. Reichenbach
originally described it as Catasetum tapiriceps Rchb.f
1887one year later
after agreeing that it was a natural hybrid called it
as Catasetum ×
tapiriceps Rchb.f., Gard. Chron., III, 3: 136 1888.
Catasetum × splendens Cogn., J. Orchidées 5: 302 1894
is a synonym of C x
tapiriceps as it was described 6 years later, so your
plant will be in IOSPE
under C x tapiriceps.
So goes taxomony! You may have purchased your C
splendens from a Brazilian
dealer and they are aware of Cogn. much more than
Rchb.f as he worked mostly
with Brazilian species ergo the name error.
Thanks for the photo!
Jay Pfahl

And here is the link (this could be my one shot at fame):
IOSPE PHOTOS

[Frdemetr]

Nancy,
Jay is right, in Brazil the Cogniaux's work is more well known than Reichenbach fil. Cogniaux was a great collaborator of Von Martius' masterpiece "Flora Brasiliensis" (freely available at Flora brasiliensis, CRIA ). Reichenbach was invited to work but, due his notorious vanity, he refused after he knew he would not be the head!

Congrats for your 15 minutes of fame!

[Tricho]

hi Nancy

I'm too late to say anything, there are very nice explanations.

Your clone is very nice indeed and as was said before, take a time to see all the combinations of color and form that this hybrid has. Some are really outstanding.