Cattleya Bow Bells 'Rex' AM/AOS

[Jmoney]

For anyone who loves orchid history, and any classic cattleya fans, I highly recommend reading about the famous Bow Bells on Chadwick Orchids website. Some wonderful articles on this landmark white hybrid from the 1940s.

I have managed to obtain a few of the cultivars still in existence, but this one might be my favorite (for now). 'Rex' was one of the earlier awards (1950), and I am guessing it must have been one of the original seedlings imported by Clint McDade (who got the award). I got it from the late Plato Mathews several years ago, and it is particularly interesting to me in that it always blooms with a tiny dusting of magenta spots (and occasional dashes) in the lips. (I have tested this for virus a few times, all negative). I have not been able to locate the original flower description from 1950 and guess that has been lost to posterity.

I had asked every cattleya expert I could find about this unusual pattern, and the responses ranged from "you have a mislabelled plant" to "Bow Bells is known to have some recessive pigment genes" to "this would have been a great question for [longtime cattleya grower, sadly no longer living]". My unproven hypothesis is that somehow in the 70+ years of cultivation something turned "on" to produce this pigment. I had asked Plato himself after the first blooming for me, and he didn't seem to recall seeing it himself but told me about recessive pigment genes. The dusting is more subtle on this blooming but if you look closely it is there. I have never seen any other cattleya with this pattern.